After Session 10 · Global trade and economic power
Structured notes after the live class — goods and services, imports and exports, trade balance, surplus and deficit, how specialized capacity (Taiwan and chips) creates leverage, tariffs, sanctions, and embargoes, supply-chain shocks, free trade versus protectionism and globalization, the WTO and multilateral rules, bilateral deals, trade versus market trading, polarity vocabulary (unipolar / multipolar), and offshoring, nearshoring, and reshoring. Not a substitute for attending.
Five through-lines from Session 10. The stack moves from national accounting to where factories sit.
Imports and exports of goods and services roll up into a country’s trade balance — surplus or deficit compared like a macro ledger.
Countries trade leverage when they control inputs others cannot easily replicate — class used advanced manufacturing and semiconductors as the textbook modern example.
Tariffs tax cross-border goods to reshape incentives; sanctions penalize targeted dealings; embargoes attempt outright bans — each rewires the supply chain.
Free trade favors lighter borders; protectionism shields domestic producers — headline English ties both to nationalism, elections, and who bears consumer costs.
Offshoring, nearshoring, and reshoring describe where work physically sits — vocabulary procurement and HR teams use when factories move.
How we moved
This section follows the May 7, 2026 Session 10 recording (same order and emphasis).
Class opened on global trade and economic power, defined trade and international trade, split goods from services, unpacked import/export via Latin port, built trade balance, surplus, and deficit (plus deficient), argued imports/exports shape national leverage with a Taiwan manufacturing story, contrasted tariffs, sanctions, and embargo with enforcement headaches and an Italy–Russia gas supply chain example, introduced wield power, staged free trade versus protectionism through a headline on globalization and sketched conservative/liberal alignment (simplified), surveyed the WTO, World Bank–style bodies, and dependency critiques, separated trade from speculative market trading, taught bilateral and multilateral, added unipolar/multipolar/bipolar framing for today’s news, and closed with offshore, nearshore, and reshore plus homework direction on Italy’s export mix.
Trade moves products and agreements across borders; goods are tangible items (a table), services are actions done for someone (teaching). Import / export echo Latin roots about carrying (portable). At country scale, comparing sales abroad with purchases abroad yields the trade balance. Surplus signals extra outbound value relative to imports in this framing; deficit signals the opposite — parallel intuition to business profit/loss metaphors class used. The adjective deficient shares the deficit root but means lacking what is needed.
“So today, We are talking about global trade.”Christopher (Session 10)
“When we're looking at imports and exports of countries, then we're looking at their trade balance.”Christopher (Session 10)
Takeaway: Always label whether the sentence is about goods, services, or both.
Surpluses of scarce inputs confer economic power: charge high prices, ration access, or demand political concessions outside narrow commerce. Class emphasized Taiwan’s concentration in advanced chip fabrication that partners struggle to replicate quickly — so leverage sits in manufacturing capability, not only commodity tonnage.
“Talking about global trade and talking about surplus and deficit and imports and exports, these things give countries economic power.”Christopher (Session 10)
Takeaway: Read supply-chain news for bottlenecks, not only tariff headlines.
Sanctions impose selective penalties (stop selling one item while other business continues). Embargoes aim at fuller bans — North Korea cited as an extreme case. Tariffs add taxes at the border so imports cost more, steering buyers toward domestic producers (Japanese versus Italian cars in Christopher’s sketch). Tariffs also appeared as negotiation leverage in recent US politics. Enforcement grows harder when digital services skirt borders; class tied legislative / judicial / executive roles briefly to the verb enforce. When sanctions suddenly bar Russian energy, countries sourcing gas must reroute — that disruption is a supply-chain shock.
“Countries can use this power through tariffs… through sanctions… Through an embargo.”Christopher (Session 10)
“So this is… this is, a problem in the supply chain.”Christopher (Session 10)
Takeaway: Map each tool to who pays (importers, banks, citizens) and what must reroute physically.
Free trade imagines governments keeping hands off — countries exchange without tariff walls (Italy–France open-border illustration). Protectionism limits imports to shield national firms; consumers often face higher prices. Class read a headline about rising protectionism unwinding decades of globalization and raising consumer costs, then linked nationalism’s surge to protectionist instincts while noting liberals classically favor openness — the messy overlap of labels on today’s real coalitions was acknowledged.
“So some people are fans of what's called free trade.”Christopher (Session 10)
Takeaway: Headlines pair economics with voter identity words — translate both.
The World Trade Organization sets dispute forums and rules; class positioned it historically inside the postwar Western-designed trade architecture alongside bodies like the World Bank, then discussed critical readings (including memoir literature assigned in Christopher’s IR coursework) about conditional lending and influence. Separately, English distinguishes macro trade from financial-market trading — buying and selling instruments quickly, closer to speculation.
“Trade is different from trading.”Christopher (Session 10)
Takeaway: In essays, keep “international trade policy” and “day trading” in separate paragraphs.
Bilateral agreements bind two states (Germany–Italy examples); multilateral forums like the WTO convene many parties. Class extended Latin prefixes to describe global power structure — unipolar (dominant single center), bipolar Cold War imagery, multipolar rivalry among several heavyweights — and linked headlines on sanctions, commodity flows, and dollar-network friction to that vocabulary without fixing a single forecast.
“We were talking about trade and international politics, and we have these two words that we hear a lot, bilateral and multilateral.”Christopher (Session 10)
Takeaway: Ask every treaty article whether it is two-party or many-party.
Offshore begins with geography away from home jurisdiction (accounts or factories abroad). Production moved to China for cost, so firms offshored manufacturing; nearshore sends work to neighbors (France and Italy sketched); reshore brings activity home — tied rhetorically to political pressure on brands like Apple. Grammar note: offshore often acts as adjective (offshore account); newer verbs mirror that pattern. Christopher deferred live Italy charts but suggested students inspect national surplus/deficit data — emphasizing sectors such as pharmaceuticals, botanical products, motor vehicles, and transport equipment as conversation starters next class.
“So they offshored manufacturing.”Christopher (Session 10)
Takeaway: Corporate English mixes geography with tax and labor strategy — hear all three layers.
Go deeper
Short add-ons: hooks if you want to read or discuss more.
Exchange rates price foreign invoices; trade policy decides whether those invoices face extra taxes or legal barriers — same headlines, two vocab layers.
The recording centered power politics and supply chains; your session card still expects comparative advantage theory — rehearse it from the session page materials before debates on fairness.
Homework
Tasks tie to the live session and Session 10 grammar: balanced arguments with although, even though, and while. Use the session page for vocabulary and the fairness discussion prompt.
Optional: Read one English-language trade dispute article and highlight every instance of bilateral or multilateral.
Words from this session
Say them in a sentence — not only define them. Mix with your country’s top partners.