b) do post-reading activities. Fill in the gaps with the words in box 4Well 6consoles 1agreement 7completely 3duties 8applies 2end
5variety 11solutions 15Achieve 13hit 10consumers 16soon 9believe
14clearly 12cut
There is a new global trade (1)
agreement
that will make IT products cheaper.
More than 50 countries agreed to (2)
end
tariffs and import (3)
duties
on over 200
IT products. All 28 countries from the European Union signed, as (4) well as
China, Japan, South Korea, the U.S. and others. The deal was signed at a World
Trade Organization meeting in Geneva. It will affect a wide (5)
variety
of
products, including smartphones, digital cameras, ink cartridges, video game (6)
consoles
and even telecommunications satellites. Import duties will be (7)
completely
removed from the selected IT products in the next four years. The deal
(8)
applies
to $1.3 trillion worth of global trade. This is about 7 per cent of all
world trade.
Many people (9)
believe
the deal will be good for the world. The EU Trade
Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, said: "This is a great deal for (10)
consumers
,
and for companies big and small. We've worked hard [on] this compromise between
different countries to find the best (11)
solutions
." She added: "This deal will (12)
cut
costs for consumers and business - in particular, for smaller firms, which have
been (13) hit especially hard…in the past." Ms Malmström hopes more countries
will sign up to the deal in the next few years. She said: "It (14)
clearly
shows that
countries around the world can work together to (15) achieve solutions that benefit
everyone. I [expect to see] other countries joining (16) soon."
