Showing understanding and sympathy

I am very sorry to hear that... I am sorry that you were dissatisfied with ...

Apologising                                  Please accept our sincere apologies.

I would like to apologise for the inconvenience you suffered/  the problems you experienced.

Indicating action

I have looked into the matter. I have checked with the staff involved.

Offering compensation

To compensate you for the inconvenience, we would like to offer you ...

Ending the letter

Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention.

Once again, my apologies for the inconvenience caused.

We very much regret the embarrassment / annoyance you experienced.

I very much hope that you will continue to use our company in the future.

Text 3  Claims

In ideal business conditions everything should be done carefully - details of offers and orders checked, manufacture of the goods carried out properly, packing and marking verified. However in spite of all possible care and attention that is given to contracts letters of complaint happen to arrive rather frequently because of various infringements.  

There are various reasons for complaints. The following kinds of claims are often made by Buyers:

1) claims arising from the delivery of wrong goods, damaged goods or substandard goods;

2) claims connected with delays of one kind or another;

3) claims owing to goods missing from delivery (i.e. short­-shipment or short-delivery);

3) claims that concern errors in carrying out the order. These may be caused by mis-typing of figures, mis-reading of numbers, mis-direction of goods, wrong goods, wrong packing and so on. Sellers most frequently make claims on Buyers because of default of payment.

As a rule a customer will not complain unless he has a good reason. If the customer's complaint is well-grounded, the settlement is comparatively easy: the error will be admitted and the responsible party will meet the claim fully or partly. In other words, the dissatisfied party will get full or partial compensation for the losses they suffered. Thus the matter is settled amicably.

Much more difficult is the case where the customer's complaint is not justified. It would be wrong policy to reject the claim off-­hand.

The responsible party must carefully explain why the claim is declined and try to persuade the dissatisfied party to withdraw the claim.

Settling commercial disputes by arbitration is practiced if the parties in dispute cannot meet mutual understanding. In this case the parties may refer the matter to Foreign Trade Arbitration Commission at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Moscow. The award of the Arbitration Commission is final and binding upon both parties.

Expressions used in connection with delay in delivery:

1) We shall be glad to know when we may expect delivery of the goods as they are most urgently wanted.

2) The delivery of the goods was to have taken place last month, and we have been caused serious inconvenience through the delay.

3) When placing this order with you we particularly stipulated for delivery within eight months.

4) Your delay in delivering the goods against Order No 1225 caused us considerable inconvenience.

5) We are surprised that you have not yet delivered the goods against Order No 1225.

4) We must insist on your unconditional guarantee that the goods will be delivered at the end of September.

7) We refuse to accept the goods on the ground of late delivery.

8) We are very sorry that you have to complain of delay in delivery of the goods.

9) We ask you to accept our apologies for the delay and the inconvenience you have been caused.

10) We apologize for the delay and trust that you have not been caused any serious inconvenience.

11) The delay in delivery occurred through no fault of ours.

12) The great pressure of orders for these goods has made it impossible for us to deliver the goods in August.

Vocabulary:

3.3 Translate from Russian into English.

1) Покупатели часто предъявляют претензии продавцам по поводу поставки товаров, не предусмотренных контрактом, поврежденных и недоброкачественных товаров.

2) Претензии могут быть вызваны недопоставкой товаров.

3) Во избежание претензий со стороны покупателя следует
проверить упаковку и маркировку товаров.

4) Продавцы могут предъявлять претензии покупателям по поводу задержки платежа.

5) Если претензия обоснована, ответчик должен полностью или частично компенсировать убытки.

6) Сторона может отклонить претензию, если считает, что она

необоснована.

7) Если сторонам не удалось прийти к соглашению, дело может быть передано на рассмотрение Внешнеторговой арбитражной комиссии при Торгово-промышленной палате.

8) Решение Арбитражной комиссии окончательно и обязательно для обеих сторон.

3.4 Translate the letter from English into Russian.

July 15, 20...

Dear Sirs,

Re: Order No 235

Further to our letter dated June 30, 20... we are writing to you to express our deep concern about the delay in delivery of consignment under the above Order. You will remember that when we sent you our Order we pointed out that timely delivery was most essential.

We are taking this opportunity to remind you that lately we have had numerous complaints from our clients who find fault with the packing of your goods.

We are sure that you are well aware of our previous claims. Therefore we expect you to take urgent steps to speed up the delivery of the above consignment and to give instructions to your packing department to take more care of inside packing of the goods.

Yours faithfully,

3.5Translate the following from English into Russian.

1) Please refer to our Order No 57/12 for machine-tools which you advise would be delivered by October 27.

Unless this order arrives by November 5, we shall have to cancel, as we cannot wait any longer for delivery.

We are sure you understand our position and will take all possible steps to ensure that cancellation will not be necessary.

2) We have for acknowledgement your letter of October 31 regarding the late delivery of your Order No 57/12.

This consignment has been held up because of the earthquake; however, we assure you that we are making every effort to get your machine-tools to you and anticipate that delivery should be effected by November 5.

Please accept our apologies for this delay.

3) When we made our order for machine-tools (Order No 43/14) three months ago we did so on the understanding that delivery would be by May 14.

We have not received the machine-tools yet and would appreciate your immediate advice as to when we may expect them.

You have always kept to delivery dates before and this is the first time we have had cause to complain. We have no doubt therefore that you will do your utmost to ensure that our consignment arrives soon.

Vocabulary

3.6 Translate the letter into Russian.

Dear Sirs:

Our Order No VF449766 of July 4, 2008

The goods ordered under this number arrived today in good condition, and your invoice has been checked and found correct.

However, we have to point out that these articles were ordered subject to their arriving here by the end of August. Since they did not reach us until September 14, we have been hard pressed to meet our commitments to our own customers.

As you will no doubt understand, a recurrence of this situation could well result in our customers placing orders elsewhere, and this is a risk we are unwilling to take. We must, therefore, insist that you observe delivery deadlines for future orders.

Yours faithfully,

3.7  Translate from Russian into English.

Москва, 15.11.2006

Наша ссылка 12/56/78

 Англия, Лондон

Виктория-стрит, 69

фирме Грин энд Ко

Уважаемые господа!

Несмотря на наши неоднократные телеграммы, мы все еще не имеем от Вас сообщения о дате выхода Вашего судна в море. Эта досадная задержка в подаче Вами судна лишает нас возможности выполнить контракт и влечет за собой большие непроизводительные расходы по хранению такого огромного количества зерна.

Мы, к сожалению, вынуждены Вас предупредить, что в случае неполучения от Вас к 20-му с.м. телеграммы о направ­лении надлежащего судна в порт погрузки, мы будем считать себя свободными от всяких обязательств по контракту, и все расходы и убытки, связанные с нарушением контракта (расхо­ды по хранению и страхованию, разница в цене и т.п.) будут целиком отнесены на Ваш счет.

Надеемся, что Вы поймете всю важность вопроса и примете все зависящие от Вас меры, чтобы дать нам возможность уско­рить выполнение контракта.

В ожидании Вашего скорого ответа

Vocabulary

3.8 Complete this letter by putting the verbs in brackets into the correct form, -ing or to + infinitive.

Dear Audio World

I am writing to complain about the poor service that I received when I was in your store last week. Recently you decided (1) (remove) listening facilities in your stores, and your sales staff encouraged customers (2) (take) home their choice of CDs without (3) (hear) them first. You invited us (4) (return) any CDs that we did not like as long as we kept the receipt as proof of the purchase. In my opinion this was an excellent policy as it allowed customers (5) (risk) (6) (buy) things that were a little different.

A consequence of your policy is that customers will buy more CDs, and this means (7) (return) more that they don't like. In fact last week I brought back eight CDs, from the fourteen I had bought on the previous visit. Your salesman refused (8) (accept) such a large number, and accused me of (9) (take) the CDs home just (10) (copy) them. I strongly objected to (11) (be) treated like this as I had remembered (12) (bring) the receipts with me and my actions were within the terms of your guarantee.

 I can’t help (13) (think) that you will lose a lot of business if your staff go on (14) (behave) in this way, and I advise you (15) (train) your staff (16) (deal) with customers in a more polite manner.

Yours sincerely

Iann Carr

3.9 Make up a text of a claim in English for the following situation.

Вами была получена партия книг по заказу № 436 с задержкой в 30 дней. Осмотр упаковок, выбранных наугад (at random), показал, что большая часть партии повреждена морской водой. Исходя из этого, вы требуете предоставления вам скидки со стоимости партии в 30%, что составило бы достаточную компенсацию (fair compensation). Вы предупреждаете, что в случае непредоставления вам скидки дело будет передано в арбитраж.

Unit 4 Foreign trade

Text 1

International trade takes place within the framework of agreements worked out by countries in the World Trade Organisation (WTO 1995) formerly known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Over the last 50 years trade barriers have been coming down and free trade, open borders and deregulation now form the ideal for almost all nations, even if the situation is far from one of complete laisser-faire, with no government intervention. Protectionism is no longer the order of the day in most places; even if some developing countries argue that protectionist measures are the way to get their economies going, they avoid using the term.

Arguments for protection

During trade negotiations countries argue for protection of their strategic industries, ones they consider vital to future prosperity such as the electronics industry in the developed world or industries crucial to national security such as producers of military hardware. A less developed country beginning car assembly might want to protect it as an infant industry to give it time to grow and become strong enough to compete internationally.

Cheap labour. Less developed countries have a natural cost advantage as labour costs in those economies are low. They can produce goods less expensively than developed economies and their goods are more competitive in international markets.

Diversification of the economy. If a country channels all its resources into a few industries, no matter how internationally competitive those industries are, it runs the risk of becoming too dependent on them. Keeping weaker industries competitive through protection may help in diversifying the nation’s economy.

Methods of protection.

Tariffs are taxes on import. Tariffs make the item more expensive for consumers, thereby reducing the demand. Ad valorem tariffs are usually levied as a percentage of the value of import, although sometimes a flat rate may be charged.

Governments sometimes restrict the sale of foreign goods by imposing import quotas. They limit the quantity of foreign goods that can be imported and help domestic producers by limiting the share of the market that can be taken by foreigners.

Voluntary restraints. Sometimes governments negotiate agreements whereby a country voluntarily limit its export of a certain product. Japan voluntarily limited its export of cars to the United States in 1992 to 1.65 million cars per year.

Another way to achieve the goals of protectionism is to make the domestic industry more competitive through subsidies. Subsidies can be direct (outright payments) or indirect (special tax breaks or incentives, buying of surplus goods, providing low-interest loans or guaranteeing private loans). European farmers argue for their subsidies, where governments guarantee farmers a higher price than they would normally get, making it hard for developing nations to compete in agricultural products.

Trade ban. Governments may ban trade with certain countries for political reasons. They also ban import of certain products to protect domestic industries. For instance, Japan bans importation of rice.

Imposing standards. Health, safety and environmental (HSE) standards often vary from country to country. These may act as a barrier to free trade and a tool of protectionism. For example, the EU has very stringent health and safety standards that goods have to meet in order to be imported.
Of course, there are trading blocks with no trade barriers at all such as the single market of the European Union. The North American Free Trade Organisation, or NAFTA (the US, Canada and Mexico) is also eliminating its tariff walls and customs duties. Their equivalents in Asia and Latin America are ASEAN (1967 - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) and MERCOSUR (1991-Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay).

Free trade advocates typically argue that consumers benefit from freer trade. Free trade and the resulting foreign competition forces companies to keep prices low. Consumers have a larger variety of goods and services to choose from in open markets. Domestic companies have to modernize equipment and technologies to keep themselves competitive. Many people believe that free trade is a good thing because it increases export opportunities and creates wealth. Manufacturers in countries with small population can find new markets which will allow them to expand. It allows countries to exploit their comparative advantage (the ability to produce goods cheaper than anyone else). Countries accuse each other of dumping, where exported goods are sold at less than in the home market, or for less than they cost to produce, usually in order to gain market share in the export market. The offending country may reply that it has a comparative advantage in producing these goods and that they are not selling at below cost.

One major concern in international trade between smaller companies is payment. The exporter wants to be sure about getting paid and the importer wants to be sure of getting the goods. A common solution is the letter of credit, where a bank guarantees payment to the exporter's bank once it receives the related shipping documents, including the clean bills of lading, showing the goods have been shipped without damage or other problems.

Answer the questions below:

1. What are the arguments that advocates of protectionism usually use?

2. What protectionist tools can governments apply to manage their countries’ international trade positions?

3. What can free trade advocates say to support their views?

4.1 Complete the sentences.

1. The system by which countries exchange goods and services is called ….

2. Free trade is the opposite of …… which means that a government tries to help

 industry in its own country by taxing foreign goods that compete with it,

 so limiting the number that can be imported.

3. Something which is suitable for a particular situation or is very

common at a particular time is…..

4. Those in favour of free trade think that …

5. Advocates of protectionism believe that …

6.  The difference between nation’s exports and imports of merchandise is…. .

7.  A …. merchandise trade balance occurs when a country’s exports exceeds its imports.

8.  A …. balance occurs when a country’s imports exceeds its exports.

9. The complete summary of all economic transactions between a

country and the rest of the world – involving transfers of merchandise,

services, financial assets and tourism – is called …             

4.2 Replace the underlined words and expressions in the text about international trade with the words and expressions in the box: