Unit 8 Trends in Economics Part I Warming u p Section A Tapescript: 1. British Aerospace plans to buy the part of General Electric Company of Britain that makes defense electronics. The deal is worth $25,000,000,000. 2. Canada will hold a meeting of American leaders in April to discuss trade and economic issues. Canada now has a trade surplus of $161,000,000 a year with Central America. 3. Owners of MCI Communications have agreed to sell the company to the American communications company WorldCom. The price is $37,000,000,000 in stock. WorldCom defeated a 28,000,000,000-dollar offer by GGE. MCI also refused the British company Telecom’s offer to unite the two companies by an agreement worth about $24,000,000,000. 4. President Clinton will release 30,000,000 barrels of oil from the United States emergency supply. The move is designed to ease heating oil shortage expected this year. 5. RANGOON — The United Nations and the World Bank have offered Burma $1,000,000,000 in aid. A UN special diplomat made the offer to Burmese leaders last month. 6. Representatives of the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council have agreed to common import taxes. Officials at the meeting in Riyad said representatives agreed to set the common tax on some goods at 5.5%. The tax on other goods will be 7.5%. 7. The New York Stock Exchange halted trading early after suffering one of the worst market drops in history. Stock prices fell more than 550 points. That is a loss of more than 7%. 8. United States’ Central Bank officials are reducing interest rates for the third time this year. The bank officials cut by 0.25% the rate that banks charge each other for short-term loans. That rate now will be 4.75%. T...
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