2019年经济学人 美-墨-加协议(1)

 

Union leaders and Democratic lawmakers were cool at first towards the USMCA,

起初工会领袖和民主党议员对USMCA很冷淡，

a replacement¹ for the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

一年多前， 美国、加拿大和墨西哥谈判代表签署了USMCA，

which was signed by American, Canadian and Mexican trade negotiators over a year ago.

取代了已有25年历史的北美自由贸易协定(NAFTA)。

But on December 10th, after months of further talks, they swung behind a reworked version.

但在12月10日，经过几个月的进一步谈判，他们转而达成了一个修改过的版本。

Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO, America's largest trade-union group, proclaimed a "new standard for future trade negotiations²".

美国最大工会AFL-CIO总裁理查德·特鲁克马赞扬其是“未来贸易谈判的新标准”。

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, called it a "victory for America's workers".

众议院民主党发言人南希·佩洛西称这是“美国工人的胜利”。

The reversal may seem surprising. The AFL-CIO has not endorsed³ an American trade deal in nearly two decades,

这种反转似乎令人惊讶。AFL-CIO在近20年来都没有支持过任何一份美国的贸易协定，

and Ms Pelosi is trying to get President Donald Trump⁴, whose deal this is, impeached⁵.

并且佩洛西女士正在弹劾唐纳德·特朗普总统，而这是特朗普总统促成的协议。

According to polling data provided to The Economist⁶ by YouGov and published on December 11th,

根据YouGov提供给《经济学人》并于12月11日公布的调查数据显示，

though 79% of Americans say that "trade and globalisation" are important to them, only 37% say the same of replacing NAFTA with the USMCA.

虽然有79%的美国人表示“贸易和全球化”对他们很重要，但仅有37%的人表示支持USMCA取代NAFTA

But both the politics and the content of the deal have led to unexpected alliances.

但政治和协议的内容都导致了意想不到的联盟。

Supporting the USMCA lets Democrats⁷ claim that they are not obstructing⁸ Mr Trump's agenda for the sake of it.

支持USMCA让民主党人宣称，他们并不是为了阻碍特朗普的议程。

And on trade, Mr Trump has more in common with the left wing of the Democratic Party than with his own Republicans.

并且在贸易方面，比起自己的共和党人，特朗普与民主党左翼的共同点更多。

Many Democrats agree that previous deals made trade too free, with too few of the benefits going to American workers.

很多民主党人认为，以前的协议使贸易过于自由，美国工人获得的利益太少。

And several of the changes secured by the Democrats are meaningful. Some are sure to be to Mr Trump's taste, too.

并且民主党人取得的一些改变是有意义的。其中一些也一定符合特朗普的胃口。

Among the revisions are an end to intellectual-property protections for biologics, a specific class of drug,

修订的内容包括终止对生物制品、一种特殊级别的药物

and weaker patents for pharmaceuticals⁹ in general.

以及总体上较弱的药品专利的知识产权保护。

Democrats say such protections stifle¹¹ competition from generics¹² and raise drug prices.

民主党人表示这样的保护措施抑制了仿制药的竞争，提高了药品价格。

Unsurprisingly, those changes went down badly with the Pharmaceutical¹⁰ Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry lobby.

不出所料，这些更改受到了行业游说组织美国药物研究和制造商协会的强烈反对。

Its president said they amounted to an abandonment of protections for American companies.

其总裁表示这相当于放弃了对美国公司的保护。

1 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

2 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

3 endorsed   

vt.& vi.endorse的过去式或过去分词形式v.赞同( endorse的过去式和过去分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品

参考例句：

• The committee endorsed an initiative by the chairman to enter discussion about a possible merger. 委员会通过了主席提出的新方案，开始就可能进行的并购进行讨论。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The government has broadly endorsed a research paper proposing new educational targets for 14-year-olds. 政府基本上支持建议对14 岁少年实行新教育目标的研究报告。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 impeached   

v.控告（某人）犯罪( impeach的过去式和过去分词 )；弹劾；对（某事物）怀疑；提出异议

参考例句：

• Elected officials can be impeached. 经过选举产生的官员可以被弹劾。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The judge was impeached for taking a bribe. 这个法官被检举接受贿赂。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

7 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 obstructing   

阻塞( obstruct的现在分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止

参考例句：

• You can't park here, you're obstructing my driveway. 你不能在这里停车，你挡住了我家的车道。
• He was charged for obstructing the highway. 他因阻碍交通而受控告。

9 pharmaceuticals   

n.医药品；药物( pharmaceutical的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the development of new pharmaceuticals 新药的开发
• The companies are pouring trillions of yen into biotechnology research,especially for pharmaceuticals and new seeds. 这些公司将大量资金投入生物工艺学研究，尤其是药品和新种子方面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

11 stifle   

vt.使窒息；闷死；扼杀；抑止，阻止

参考例句：

• She tried hard to stifle her laughter.她强忍住笑。
• It was an uninteresting conversation and I had to stifle a yawn.那是一次枯燥无味的交谈，我不得不强忍住自己的呵欠。

12 generics   

n.（产品，尤指药物 ）无厂家商标的，无商标的( generic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Pfizer has set up an in-house division to handle such generics. Pfizer已经建立了一个内部机构来处理这些学名药。 来自互联网
• Payers are being more pushy about getting patients to take generics. 药物费用的支付者更倾向于让病人使用非专利药。 来自互联网