All business activites that involve exchanges across national boundaries.
International business
The ability to produce a specific product more efficiently than any other nation.
Absolute advantage
The ability to produce a specific product more efficiently than any other product.
Comparatice advantage
Selling and shipping raw materials or products to other nations
Exporting
Purchasing raw materials or products in other nations and bringing them into one's own country.
Importing
The total value of a nation's exports minus the total balue of its imports over some period of time.
Balance of trade
A negative balance of trade.
Trade deficit
The total flow of money into a country minus the total flow of money out of that country over some period of time.
Balance of payments
A tax lecied on a particular foreign product entering a country.
Import duty (tariff)
Exportation of large quantities of a product at a price lower than that of the same product in the home market.
Dumping
A nontax measure imposed by a government to favor domestic over foreign suppliers.
Nontariff barrier
A limit on the amount of a particular good that may be imported into a country during a given period of time.
Import quota
A complete halt to trading with a particular naion or in a paricular product.
Embargo
A restricition on he amount of a particular foreign currency that an be purchased or sold.
Foreign-exchange control
The reduction of the value of a nation's currency relaive to the currencies of other countries.
Currency devaluation
An international organization of 153 nations dedicated to reducing or eliminating tariffs and other barriers to the world trade.
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
Powerful successor to GATT the incorporates trade in goods, services, and ideas.
World Trade Organization (WTO)
An organization of nations formed to promote the free movement of resources and products among its members and to create common economic policies.
Economic community
A contractual agreement in which one firm permits another to produce and market its product and use its brand name in return for a royalty or other compensation.
Licensing
Issued by a bank on request of an imporer stating that the bank will pay an amount of money to a stated beneficiary.
Letter of credit
Document issued by a transport carrier to an exporter to prove that merchandise has been shipped.
Bill of lading
Issued by the exporter's bank, ordering the importer's bank to pay for the merchandise, thus guaranteeing payment once accepted by the importer's bank.
Draft
A partnership formed to create competitive advantage on a worldwide basis.
Strategic alliance
Provides a link between buyers and sellers in different countries.
Trading company
An international barter transaction.
Countertrade
A firm that operates on a worldwide scale without ties to any specific nation or region.
Multinational enterprise
An independent agency of the U.S. government whose function is to assist in financing the exports of American firms.
Export-Import Bank of the United States
An internationally supported bank that provides loans to developing countries to help them grow.
Multilateral Development Bank (MDB)
An international bank with 186 member nations that makes short-term loans to developing countries experiencing balance-of-payment deficits.