翻译笔记：特朗普关税加征政策（下）

补上3月7日-3月13日的第一篇学习笔记。

《关税》的下一部分，承认世贸组织的重重缺陷，同时也肯定了它的作用（提供规则），破坏世贸组织无益于世界或是美国。世贸组织成员不应当对特朗普采取以牙还牙的报复政策，而是应该协调行动，投诉特朗普的关税政策。

（文章主要在反对川普关税政策，但其中还穿插着指责了中国一句，实在是很讽刺。）

最近倒霉事比较多，比如说微博上被碰瓷抄袭；比如说入了某小说坑无心干活；比如说翻译价格停滞不前；翻译疏漏频频出现；更新动力不足，进度远远落下；间歇性抑郁情绪爆发。

好在也有幸事，买买买了一圈；把自己捯饬得好看了许多；面基了豆瓣的小伙伴；月底要去当伴娘；试译稿件已上交，也许能找到新合作方。

希望新的一年有新气象。

Mr Trump haslobbedhisgrenadeas the WTO is alreadyunder strain. The collapse of the Doha round of trade talks in 2015, after 14 fruitless years, put needed reformson holdindefinitely.Disputes that might have been swept into a new trade round have fallen to the WTO’s dispute-resolution machinery, which is too slow and too frail to carry the burden. The WTO has not kept pace with economic change. Investment is increasingly tied up in intangibles, such as patents and copyright, rather than physical assets, such as steel mills. Rules drafted for rich, market-led economies cannot always policestate capitalism. Theimplicit subsidies China gives its producers were a cause of globalgluts in industrial metals. No wonder that the world’s second-biggest economy has beenthe focus of so much anger.

特朗普扔出这枚手榴弹之际，世贸组织本已承受重压。经过14年没有成果的会谈后，2015年多哈回合贸易谈判破裂，令必需的改革无限期搁置。一些争端本可能会进入新一轮贸易谈判，然而世贸组织的争端解决机制太过缓慢和脆弱，无法承担此重负。世贸组织没有跟上经济变化的步伐。投资越来越多地和专利、版权这样的无形资产联系在一起，而不是像钢铁厂这样的有形资产。为市场主导的富裕经济体制定的规则并不总能管制国家资本主义。中国向其生产商提供的隐性补贴是导致全球工业金属过剩的原因之一。难怪这个世界第二大经济体已经成为众矢之的。

Lobb

1.动词

If you lob something, you throw it so that itgoesquitehigh in the air.

Police

4.动词

If the police or military forces police an area or event, they make sure that law and order ispreservedin that area or at that event.

Glut

1.可数名词 [usually singular]

If there is a glut of something, there is so much of it that it cannot all besoldor used.

Whatever the WTO’s problems, it would be a tragedy to undermine it. If America pursues a mercantilist trade policy in defiance of the global trading system, other countriesare bound to follow. That might not lead to an immediate collapse of the WTO, but it would gradually erode one of the foundations of the globalised economy.

无论世贸组织有怎样的问题，破坏它都将酿成一场悲剧。如果美国无视全球贸易体系，奉行重商主义的贸易政策，其他国家肯定会效仿。这可能不会导致世贸组织立即崩溃，但会逐渐侵蚀全球化经济的一大根基。

In defiance of无视

Bound

2.短语

If yousaythat something is bound tohappen, you mean that you are sure it will happen, because it is a naturalconsequenceof something that isalreadyknown or exists.

Everyone would suffer. Mr Trump seems to think trade is azero-sum affair, in which a deficit is a sign of a bad deal. But the vast improvement in living standards after the second world war wenthand in hand withrapid expansion in world trade over eight trade rounds, each of which lowered barriers. Imports are in fact welcome, because they benefit consumers and spur producers to specialise in what they do best.

谁的日子都不会好过。特朗普似乎认为贸易是一种零和活动，而赤字是糟糕交易（亏本生意）的信号。然而二战后生活水平的巨大提高与世界贸易的快速扩张密切相关，推动这种扩张的八个贸易回合谈判中，每一回合都降低了贸易壁垒（拆句）。进口商品其实是受欢迎的，因为它们使消费者受益，还会促使生产者专注于他们最擅长的产品。

Without the WTO, cross-border trade would continue—it is unstoppable—but the lack of norms and procedures would leave disputes to escalate. The fewer the rules, the more scope for mercantilistmischief and backsliding. Trade policy could becaptured by special interests. Military power wouldhold greater sway in trade disputes than economic fair play. Transnational investment could drain away. As a vast continental economy, America would lose less from this than other countries. It would nonetheless lose a lot, including a pillar of the system that has underpinned its post-war political influence.

如果没有世贸组织，跨境贸易仍将继续，毕竟这是不可阻挡的，但缺乏规范和规程将导致争端升级。规则越少，重商主义制造麻烦和倒退的余地就越大。贸易政策可能会被特殊利益集团把持。在贸易争端中，军事力量会比经济上的公平竞争更具影响力。跨国投资可能会流失。作为一个巨大的大陆经济体，美国的损失会少于其他国家。然而它还是会损失重大，包括支撑其战后政治影响力的体系中的一大支柱（这里原文有点语焉不详）。

Mischief

2.不可数名词

Mischief is behaviour that isintendedto cause trouble for people. It can also refer to the trouble that is caused.

Sway

动词

If you are swayed by someone or something, you are influenced by them.

上一期《驯服巨人》同样有hold sway这个用法。

例句：With more than 2bn monthly users, Facebook holds sway over the media industry.

可以用来have great influence on

How should the world get out of this bind? Even as Mr Trump behaves with astonishing irresponsibility, others mustkeep their heads. Some may impose limited retaliation—that, after all, is how to treat bullies, and the threat to local manufactures will strengthen the hand of Republicans pressing Mr Trump to relent. But such action must be proportionate and limited. A tit-for-tat war with America would be disastrous.

全世界应该如何摆脱这一困局？特朗普表现出惊人的不负责任之时，其他人必须保持冷静（保持头脑清醒）。一些人可能会采取有限的报复措施，毕竟对恃强凌弱者就是要反击，而对本土制造商的威胁也会让共和党人极力劝说特朗普放宽政策。但这类行动必须适度且有限度。对美国以牙还牙将会是一场灾难。

Bind

7.单数名词 [a NOUN]

If you are in a bind, you are in a difficult situation, usually because you have to make adecisionor achoiceand whatever decision or choice you make will haveunpleasantconsequences.

Relent

1.动词

If yourelent, you allow someone to do something that you had previouslyrefusedto allow them to do.

Back to basics

回归根本

The more important task is toshore upsupport for trade. It would be comforting to think there is global backingto fix the WTO. But just now, there is not. The only new trade deals on offer are regional, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an 11-country pact signed this week thatsets out tobe a blueprint for trade modernisation. Although Mr Trump abandoned it, he has hinted he may reconsider, which would be a start.

更重要的任务是加强对贸易的支持。如果全球都支持修整世贸组织，可能会让人稍感安慰。但现状并非如此。仅有的新贸易协议也是地区性的，比如《跨太平洋伙伴关系协定》（TPP），这个于本周签署的十一国协定将成为贸易现代化的蓝图。尽管特朗普之前放弃了这一协定，但暗示他可能会重新考虑，这可能会是个开始。

Shore up

动词短语

If youshoreup something that isweakor about tofail, you do something in order tostrengthenit orsupportit.

Set out

2.动词短语

If you set out to do something, you starttryingto do it.

The best way to help the WTO would be for its other members to co-ordinate any action, including bringing in a WTO complaint about Mr Trump’s tariffs. Even though that may burden the WTO’s court, it would be a vote of confidence in the idea that the global economy should be governed by rules.

要帮助世贸组织，最好的办法是其他成员在任何行动上协调一致，包括向世贸组织投诉特朗普的关税政策。尽管这可能会给世贸组织的法庭带来负担，但这将会是一张“信任票”，表示各国相信全球经济应当受到规则的管理约束。

The world is a long way from the 1930s, thank goodness. Yet ignorance andcomplacencyhave put the trading systemin grave danger. Free-traders need to recognise that the WTO can help keep markets open in the face of protectionist lobbying, at home and abroad.It is vitalthey makethe intellectual casefor rules-based trade. That will not be easy.For the first time in decades, their biggest foe is the man in the Oval Office.

谢天谢地，我们离上世纪30年代已经很遥远了。然而，无知和自满让贸易体系岌岌可危。支持自由贸易的人士要认识到，在面对贸易保护主义的游说时，世贸组织有助于市场保持开放，无论是在国内还是国外。至关重要的一点是，他们得证明基于规则的贸易是有理有据的。这并不容易。眼下他们最大的敌人就是椭圆办公室里的那个人。几十年来，这还是头一遭（语序重新组合）。

Complacency

不可数名词

Complacency is beingcomplacentabout asituation.

[disapproval]

英中文来源：https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1594523054992530289&wfr=spider&for=pc

括号内容与评述原创，仅供学习之用。