Interpreting Common English/Chinese Keywords, Stock Phrases, and Sentence Patterns Used in Economic and Trade Negotiations1 (經貿談判常用語彙，套用語，句型之中英口譯練習)1. at the outset…2. First of all, we must bear in mind…3. Despite the fact that…, I still…4. We te nd to favor…, as opposed to…5. That’s a moot point, and we should discuss it further in our next negotiation.6. Under no circumstances could I agree to your proposal.7. I have some sympathy with your position, but I must take issue with you here.8. May I just draw your attention to the fact that the price of your products is simply unreasonable.9. Let’s make a deal. I’ll drop the price a little, if you increase your order.10. It would be in your best interests to accept our option.11. Since we have been on good terms with each other, we will work out a win-win solution to our problem.1In addition to those 30 keywords and their sentence patterns presented above, the keywords, stock phrases, and sentence patterns provided here are mainly derived from Malcolm Goodale, The Language of Meetings (Hove, Great Britain: Language Teaching Publications, 2000), and 岩崎洋一郎，仲谷榮一郎著，交涉英語（孫玉珍譯）(台北市：台英雜誌，1997).12.Sorry, I am probably not making myself clear. Profits are our main issues here.13.What you suggest would be a viable alternative except for the fact that we have already found an appropriate buyer.14.At a rough guess, I’d say they’re worth about one million NT dollars.15.Y our trade policy allows us much less leeway in negotiating with you in the near future.16.This remarkable achievement demonstrates that we are in need of the spirit of give and take in every business transaction.17.The deadlock in our negotiation lies in that we overlook the strategy of carrot and stick.18.We substantially completed a market access package on agriculture, industrial goods, and services as well as fair trade rules.19.We share your concern about this, but you may rest assured that what you are buying is the best-quality product in the world.20.On the short term it’s going to cost a lot, but after a couple of years we both should be making a lot of money.21.I cannot but regard your option as of relatively minor significance, are we going to negotiate further or not?22.We are willing to buy more, with the proviso that you lower your price much more.23.If we agreed, we hope you would reciprocate by providing us a reasonable compromise.24.Y ou leave us with little alternative but to break off the negotiation and to find some other trade partners.25.W e still have certain reservations about launching a new round of trade talks toward signing a free trade agreement (FTA) in 2004.26. I would like to propose that you be an exclusive distributor for us in the UnitedStates in exchange for our being an exclusive distributor for you in Taiwan.27. Please advise us of the price the expected time. I would appreciate it if you couldsend us a synopsis or table of contents for review. Thank you.28. Our company is considering requesting your firm to conduct an in-depth studyconcerning certain products29. We are considering diversification by acquiring a smaller business like yours.30. We seriously wish to merge with you, if the necessary conditions can be met.31. I must apologize for the unexpected delay in responding to your option, because Ihad to take a business trip overseas to deal with some urgent matter.32. We thank you for your interest, but we regret to say we cannot meet yourrequirements. Should the circumstances change, we would be happy to reopen the negotiation with you.33. I am afraid that I cannot respond to that question today, since it falls under theresponsibilities of the Research and Development Department34. We understand your desire to move quickly on this issue. Personally,I shareyour sentiments. However, in Taiwan, investments of this size must be presented to the Executive Committee, which meets only twice a year.35. Excuse me, but if it is all right with you,I would like to brief my CEO inChinese. He may not have fully understood our discussions.36. Since our conversations on this point are crucial, I wish to interpret yourcomments into Chinese in order to avoid any misunderstanding. I hope you don’t mind.37. If I may, I would like to say a few words. First of all, we deeply appreciate it thatyou have taken time out of your busy schedule to meet with us today. I would like to introduce my colleagues.38. I thought you might not be very familiar with our company, so we have beenprepared to give you an introduction to our company.39. I am afraid that we were not very specific when we requested this negotiation. Itwas necessary to keep it rather vague since the matter is highly sensitive and confidential.40. Y our proposal is understandable, but the Chinese practice in this industry is topay by promissory notes maturing 60 days.41. The outside experts estimate that, under the current conditions, your project maynot be economically feasible.42. Frankly speaking, I am afraid we cannot accept your proposal, since it is tooone-side and unfavorable to us.43. Our positions are wide apart. I am afraid that it may lead to nowhere to continuethe negotiations unless you can recognize and accommodate our basic principle.44. It is un fortunate that we can’t seem to overcome some of the obstacles. I think itworthwhile for the two of us to find alternatives.45. What seems to be the real problem with our proposal on the payment terms? Idon’t think you fully appreciate our intent.46. It seems that you inadvertently left out the definition of“merger”from theprotocol. Let us insert it in the form that we agreed.47. Can you tell me where the warranty clause is? Didn’t we agree to put in awarranty clause?48. I don’t feel that th e language currently used in Article 11 accurately expresseswhat we agree to. May I suggest you consider the following wording?49. The term “Southeast Asia” appears in the option several times. Which countriesare you referring to? I feel it should be defined so that there will be no confusion.50. I am afraid we cannot make our delivery time shorter than three weeks. If you arewilling to accept an increase of the price to cover our cost for overtime work of our factory employees, I believe we can meet the two weeks period.51. What if the product infringes upon a third party’s patent? In such a case, wepropose that the seller be liable to pay compensation for any damage incurred by us.52. Please understand that, due to the limited time, this draft is still subject tochange.53. Let me restate when the Buyer wishes settle the case before judgment, the Buyershall obtain the prior written consent of the Seller. The Seller shall not be liable to indemnify the Buyer if the Buyer fails to obtain such consent.54. To the best of our knowledge, the details of the specifications of the productsshall be separately agreed to by the parties and put in writing.55. W e have to confess that you are an excellent representative of your company. Y ouare not only a very tough negotiator, but also a reasonable leader who can understand the larger issues.56. Hearing your thoughts on this matter, it appears that our respective interests arenot so wide apart. I feel that we can arrive at a mutually satisfactory arrangement if we put our minds together.57. Let us say we have agreed on item A, and leave item B as on open issue for now.Moreover, I would like to present our counterproposal as follows.58. I believe we both have presented various ideas, but regretfully cannot agree.Let’s break and resume tomorrow with a fresh mind. May we call it a day? I feel the jet lag catching up with us.59. I feel we have covered as much ground as we possibly could on this issue,but we both have matters to be reviewed by the management. Shall we return to our head offices for now and meet again next Monday?60. It seems that some of our people may have made some misleading commentsabout the matter. I regret the confusion it may have caused. It was mainly due to my insufficient instructions to my colleagues. Let me try to clarify our position again.61. I apologize for causing you some embarrassment, but the Euro hasappreciated drastically in the past five months and the appreciation substantially affects the current project. Therefore, I feel we must withdraw our proposals, and restudy our position from scratch. We sincerely request your understanding and cooperation.62. Wasn’t it your position that in principle you didn’t disagre e with our proposal?─I’m afraid there is some misunderstanding. As far as I remember, I did not make any judgment on your proposal.。