Group Projects

Business English 2
Global Financial Institutions

Some of the information for your presentations is in the article “The Bretton Woods Trio,” pages 28-36. You
will also have to do independent research on your topic.

Group 1 – Bretton Woods Conference

1. What was the Bretton Woods Conference?
2. Who was Keynes? What did he propose?
3. Why was his idea not adopted?
4. What was adopted instead?
5. Describe how the American dollar works as “the dominant currency of international exchange.”
6. Why are economists and politicians at the G-20 Conference saying this system no longer works?
7. What are they proposing as a replacement of the U.S. dollar?
8. Do you think it is a good idea? Why?

Group 2 – International Monetary Fund (IMF)

1. What was the mission of the IMF when it was first created?
2. Is that still its mission?
3. What does the book say were the 3 parts or functions of the IMF’s job?
4. What does its website say are its 6 functions today?
5. How many member nations does the IMF currently have?
6. What bigger international institution is the IMF a part of?
7. Besides (in addition to) loaning money, how does the IMF help countries? Can you find examples of
IMF projects?

Group 3 – International Monetary Fund (IMF)

1. How does a country get a loan from the IMF?
2. How long does it have to repay the loan?
3. What are SDRs (Special Drawing Rights)? How do they work?
4. What is the size of the United States’ SDR? Of China?
5. What does the size of a country’s SDR mean? What does it allow that country to do?
6. When the IMF gives a loan to a country, are there “strings attached”? What does “strings attached”
mean? What are some examples?
7. What changes do China and other developing countries want made to the SDRs and to the IMF
itself? Why?
8. Were these changes adopted by the G-20 Conference?

Group 4 – World Bank

1. What are the two organizations that make up the World Bank?
2. How does the World Bank get its money?
3. When it was founded at the Bretton Woods Conference, the mission was to help Europe rebuild
after World War II. What is the current function or purpose of the World Bank?
4. What are the Millennium Development Goals of the World Bank?
5. Describe what developing countries have determined their economies need in order to grow and
attract business and jobs.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/0,,contentMDK:20040565~menuPK:
1696892~pagePK:51123644~piPK:329829~theSitePK:29708,00.html
Group 5 – The G-20 Conference
1. Historically, decisions about the world’s financial situation were made by the G-7 countries, and the
leaders of these 7 nations met regularly. Who are the countries that make up the G-7?
2. What other countries were invited to participate in the G-20 conference in London?
3. Why were these countries invited to attend?
4. Besides having more participants, how was this meeting different from previous meetings of the G-
7?
5. What issues were on the agenda of this meeting?
6. Describe the outcomes/decisions of the Conference.
7. Did the leaders come up with solutions for all the agenda items?
8. What will happen next?
9. Do you think the outcome of the conference was good for China?

Group 6 – GATT – General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and Intellectual Property Rights
1. What was the purpose of the GATT?
2. The book says that the final round of talks was in March 1994 in Marrakech, Morocco. There have
been two further rounds of talks and negotiations since then – where were they held? What are
they called?
3. Does GATT still exist? What is its function or purpose now?
4. Under what section of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is intellectual property rights governed?
5. When was intellectual property rights included as part of the mandate of the WTO?
6. Why are intellectual property rights considered to be a trade issue?
7. What are the types of intellectual property that are covered by the WTO?

Group 7 – WTO- World Trade Organization

1. When was the WTO founded?
2. What is its purpose?
3. How is the WTO’s structure/status different from the GATT?
4. How many nations belong to the WTO?
5. How are decisions made? Is this the same or different from the World Bank and the IMF?
6. If one country thinks that another country’s trade rules are unfair, what steps can it take? How does
the WTO become involved in the dispute?
7. How are disputes between nations resolved in the WTO?
8. What does “most favored nation” mean? What does ‘sovereign foreign policy” mean? (paragraph2
26-27) How is the dispute over bananas an illustration of this conflict?
9. What does “national treatment clause” mean? How does the controversy over hormone-fed beef
illustrate this?
10. What does “dumping” mean? What does the WTO allow member nations to do against a nation it
believes is “dumping” products? How does the dispute over duties that the US has placed on
imports of certain Chinese steel pipes, tyres and laminated woven sacks illustrate this?
http://ictsd.net/i/news/bridgesweekly/29763/