Commercial Activities and Types of Contracts

Foreign trade comprises three main activities: importing (i.e. buying goods from foreign Sellers), exporting (i.e. selling goods to foreign Buyers) and re-exporting ( i.e. buying goods from foreign Sellers and selling them to foreign Buyers without processing in one's own country).

All commercial activities in foreign trade may be divided into basic ones associated with the conclusion of foreign trade contracts for the exchange of goods and auxiliary ones ensuring their successful performance, i.e. associated with carriage of goods, their insurance, banking operations (financing the deals, settlement of payments between the Sellers and the Buyers, guaranteeing the strict observance of their mutual liabilities), as well as Customs and other activities. Conclusion of agency agreements, agreements with the Suppliers for export goods and with Importers for the purchase of goods, agreements with advertising agencies and firms dealing with the market research and with other organizations helping to achieve the targets set for for­eign trade also refer to auxiliary activities.

There may be about 10 or more auxiliary operations to one basic. In accordance with commercial usage existing in capitalist countries, contracts of sale and other agreements may be concluded either verbally or in writing.

The laws of Russia do not recognize the validity of any agree­ment concluded verbally by the Trade Representation of Russia abroad or by export or import organization in this country. According to Russian law contracts must always be made in the form of duly signed documents containing the terms of an agreement between two firms or associations called counterparts (or parties) to supply goods or services as a rule at a fixed price.

Agreements and contracts concluded by the Trade Rep­resentations are to be signed by the Trade Representative or his Deputy (first signature) and by an official of the Trade Representation specially authorized to sign agreements and contracts (second signature). The names of persons entitled to sign documents and contracts on behalf of the export or import associations abroad are published in the official journal of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations called "Foreign Trade".

Agreements and contracts made in our country are to be signed by Director General of the foreign trade association or his deputies (first signature) and by directors of firms or their deputies (second signature). Sometimes senior engineers of the firms are legally authorized to sign these documents.

In international trade contracts of sale, contracts for construction work (very often for the delivery, erection and commissioning of the equipment for industrial enterprises) and lease are most frequent among a variety of basic deals. Contracts of sale include turnkey contracts and large-scale contracts on a compensation basis. There may also be barter deals and compensatory deals'.

Licence agreements stand apart from all the above contracts because they do not deal with selling and buying physical goods but with the safe and purchase of ideas, scientific-technical knowledge in the form of licences, patents and know-how. As a rule there are practically no standard licence agreements. Each licence agreement is more or less unique in itself, i.e. has its own specific individual characteristics.

To ensure the fulfilment of the above basic contracts successfully and profitably, a number of auxiliary agreements (contracts) are to be concluded: Marine Insurance Policies or Certificates, Charter Parties, Agency and Distributorship agreements and so on. The Ail-Union Self-Supporting Foreign Trade Association is the one responsible for carrying on trade and other forms of foreign economic relations at the MFER, and import-export departments, at manufacturing enterprises.

Apart from marketing carried on regularly by special marketing departments at manufacturing works or branch ministries, which helps plan foreign trade, foreign trade activities proper comprise several stages:

1) market research work (analysis of the market conditions)

2) choosing proper methods of trade on this particular market

3) planning the foreign trade operation

4) carrying on a publicity campaign

5) preparation and conclusion or a contract of sale with a foreign counterpart

6) fulfilment of contract obligations.

Литература

1. Богацкий, И. С. Бизнес-курс английского языка : учебное пособие / И.С.Богацкий, Н.М. Дюканова. –М.: Славянский дом книги, 2003.

2. Волкова, З.Н. Читаем газету : учебное пособие по английскому языку : учебное пособие / З.Н.Волкова. – М.: Изд-во УРАО, 2001.

3. Куликова, О.В. Мировая экономика – подробно. Учебное пособие/Куликова О.В. – М.: ГИС, 2003.

4. Лукьянова, Н.А. Настольная книга бизнесмена: учебное пособие/ Н.А.Лукьянова. М., 1993.

5. Fitzgerald J. Management. Black Cat Publishing, 2001.

Электронные источники

1. http://www.bis.org/publ

2. http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/

3. http://www.theworldeconomy.org/

4. http://www.ft.com/uk/global-economy

5. http://www.worldeconomyandfinance.org/

6. http://www.imf.org/external/ns/cs.aspx?id=29

7. http://www.un.org./esa/policy/publications/publications.htm

8. http://www.foreignaffairs.com/

9. http://eng.globalaffairs.ru/numbers/3/477.html

10. http:www.topnews.in/business-news/world-economy

11. http:www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy.html

12. http://economics.about.com/

13. http://www.economywatch.com/

14. http://www.wsws.org/category/world.shtml

Заключение

Предлагаемые в данном пособии задания способствуют закреплению умений извлекать необходимую информацию, уметь ее оценивать и анализировать. Кроме того, студенты имеют возможность ознакомиться с материалами, способствующими расширению их профессионального кругозора, а также активизации лексического материала по специальности «Мировая экономика». В пособии содержатся упражнения, направленные на моделирование фоновых знаний, на решение определенных учебно-познавательных задач в процессе чтения, на развитие умений аргументировать и выражать собственное мнение. Наличие ключей к ряду заданий позволяет использовать данное пособие в процессе индивидуальной и самостоятельной работы. Для повторения грамматического материала, наряду с упражнениями, содержащимися в пособии, целесообразно пользоваться методическими рекомендациями по выполнению контрольных работ и практикумами по грамматике, содержащимися в учебно-методическом комплексе по дисциплине на электронном носителе.