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- Societe en Nom Collectif - Societe en nom collectif, SNC, (French:
"general partnership") is organized with all partners
being allocated shares for their contributions, which may be cash,
in-kind, or services. There is no required minimum or maximum
capital, nor any share par value. Shares in the firm are not negotiable
and cannot be transferred without agreement of all the partners.
Each partner is liable for the totality of the firm's debts and
obligations.
- Societe in Nome Collettivo - "Snc" (Italian) is a
general partnership in which there is no limit on the liability
of the partners.
- Societe Internationale Financiere pour les Investissements
et le Developpement en Afrique - SIFIDA fosters the formation
of profitable business in Africa by identifying and nurturing
productive projects, by arranging for syndicated loans, and by
providing export finance. The Society is a holding company affiliated
with the African Development Bank (AfDB); headquarters are in
Chene-Bourg, Switzerland. Major shareholders include the AfDB,
the International Finance Corporation and more than 100 financial,
industrial, and commercial institutions around the world.
- Societe par Actions Simplifiee - SAS (French: "private
limited company") is designed for joint ventures and permits
the rights and liability of each shareholder to be defined by
mutual agreement between the parties. Only two shareholders are
required.
- Societe Per Azioni - "SpA" (Italian: public corporation)
must have at least two shareholders at formation; after formation,
the requirement is reduced to one shareholder.
- Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications
- SWIFT is a cooperative organized under Belgian law, with headquarters
in La Hulpe, near Brussels. SWIFT provides communications services
to the international banking industry, including payments and
administrative messages and, more recently, securities settlements.
Traffic in 1991 was about 362 million messages. SWIFT is owned
by the member banks -- approximately 1,600 -- including the central
banks of most countries. The U.S. Federal Reserve is not a member,
but participates in certain types of payments. Securities brokers
and dealers, clearing and depository institutions, exchanges for
securities, and travellers checks issuers also participate in
SWIFT. SWIFT was organized in 1973 and started operations in 1977.
- SOEC - Statistical Office of the European Communities
- Soft Currency - The currency of a nation in which exchange
may be made only with difficulty. Soft currency countries typically
have minimal exchange reserves and deficits in their balance of
payments. See: Hard Currency.
- Soft Loan - Commonly, a loan from a government or multilateral
development bank with a long repayment period and below-market
interest.
- SOGA - State-Organized, Government-Approved Mission
- South Asia Preferential Trading Arrangement - See: South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation.
- South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation - SAARC promotes
economic, technical, scientific, and social cooperation among
members. The Association was founded in 1985 by seven countries:
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri
Lanka. The Association plans to establish a South Asian Preferential
Trading Arrangement (SAPTA) by 1997 as a step toward creating
an economic community in south Asia.
- South Group - See: Danish International Development Assistance.
- South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation - See: South
Pacific Forum.
- South Pacific Forum - The SPF is a regional arrangement for
convening 15 governments and territories for deliberations on
issues of mutual interest. The Forum was established in 1971;
headquarters are in Suva, Fiji; members include: Australia, the
Cook Islands, Fiji, Kirbati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru,
New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Island, Tonga,
Tuvalu, and Vanatu. The South Pacific Bureau for Economic Cooperation
(SPEC) is a subsidiary organization which promotes regional cooperation
in the development of the island members in partnership with the
more industrially developed countries of the region: Australia
and New Zealand.
- Southern Africa Development Community - SADC, established in
April 1980 (as the Southern Africa Development Coordination Conference),
is a regional economic pact comprising Angola, Botswana, Lesotho,
Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and
Zimbabwe. Since a change in name and focus in mid-1992, the Community
focuses solely on development, leaving trade matters to the Preferential
Trade Agreement for Eastern and Southren Africa (PTA). Community
headquarters are in Gaborone, Botswana.
- Southern African Customs Union - SACU, established in 1910,
includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland.
SACU provides for the free exchange of goods within th to whether
a country presents excessive barriers to trade with the United
States by virtue of its inadequate protection of intellectual
property. If the USTR makes a positive determination, a country
may be named to the list of: (a) Priority Foreign Countries (the
most egregious), (b) the Priority Watch List, or (c) the Watch
List. Special 301 (a variation of Section 301) was created by
the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. See: Section
301 Super 301.
- Special American Business Internship Training Program - SABIT,
originally the Soviet-American Business Internship Training Program,
is a cooperative program that brings business executives and scientists
from the former Soviet Union for three-to six-month internships
with American companies. The program teaches these managers adn
scientists how to operate in a market economy at the same time
that American businesses development market contacts once their
interns return home. Soviet business managers are referred by
the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration to
sponsoring U.S. companies, which make the final selection of their
interns. The program matches U.S. corporate sponsors with Soviet
business executives from the same industries. The Independent
States provide transportation; the companies provide living expenses
and training in management techniques (production, distribution,
marketing, accounting, wholesaling, and publishing).
- Special and Differential Treatment - The principle, enunciated
in the Tokyo Declaration, that the Tokyo Round negotiations should
seek to accord particular benefits to the exports of developing
countries, consistent with their trade, financial, and development
needs. Among proposals for special or differential treatment are
reduction or elimination of tariffs applied to exports of developing
countries under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), expansion
of product and country coverage of the GSP, accelerated implementation
of tariff cuts agreed to in the Tokyo Round for developing country
exports, substantial reduction or elimination of tariff escalation,
special provisions for developing country exports in any new codes
of conduct covering nontariff measures, assurance that any new
multilateral safeguard system will contain special provisions
for developing country exports, and the principle that developed
countries will expect less than full reciprocity for trade concessions
they grant developing countries.
- Special Drawing Rights - SDRs are international reserve assets,
created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1970 and allocated
to individual member nations. Within conditions set by the IMF,
SDRs can be used by a nation with a deficit in its balance of
international payments to settle debts with another nation or
with the IMF. The value of SDRs is computed as a weighted average
of five currencies: deutsche mark, French franc, Japanese yen,
pound sterling, and U.S. dollar.
- Specially Designated Nationals - The Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC), Department of the Treasury, implements and enforces
financial and trade sanctions. FAC has the authority to include
within the definition of the sanctioned government those individuals
and entities that FAC has determined are owned by, controlled
by, or acting directly or indirectly on behalf of the target government.
Parties so identified are known as Specially Designated Nationals
or SDNs. In practice, an SDN is a target government body, representative,
intermediary, or front (whether overt or covert) that usually
is located in a third country and functions as an extension of
the sanctioned government. An SDN may also be a third-party company
that otherwise becomes owned or controlled by the target government
or that operates on its behalf. No criminal linkage is necessary.
Ownership by, control by, acting on behalf of, or profiting from
trade with the target government or country would suffice to qualify
a person for designation.
- SPF - South Pacific Forum
- Spot Transaction - See: Forward Exchange Rate.
- SRL - Societe a Responsabilite Limitata
- SSA - Sub-Saharan Africa
- Stand-By Arrangements - A stand-by arrangement, like an extended
arrangement, assures a member country of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) that it will be able to make purchases up to a specified
amount from the IMF during a given period, as long as the member
has observed the performance criteria and other terms specified
in the arrangement. Stand-by arrangements extend up to three years.
See: International Monetary Fund.
- Standard Industrial Classification - The SIC is the classification
standard underlying all establishment-based U.S. economic statistics
classified by industry.
- Standard International Trade Classification - The SITC was
developed by the United Nations in 1950 and is used solely by
international organizations for reporting international trade.
The SITC has been revised several times; the current version is
Revision 3.
- Standards - As defined by the Multilateral Trade Negotiations
"Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade" (Standards
Code), a standard is a technical specification contained in a
document that lays down characteristics of a product such as levels
of quality, performance, safety, or dimensions. Standards may
include, or deal exclusively with, terminology, symbols, testing
and test methods, packaging, marking, or labeling requirements
as they apply to a product. The GATT Standards Code, negotiated
and accepted during the Tokyo Round in the 1970s, is designed
to eliminate the use of standards, technical regulations, and
conformity assessment (certification) procedures as unnecessary
barriers to trade. The Standards Code is administered by the GATT
Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. The Commerce Department's
National Institute of Standards and Technology is responsible
for several provisions of the Standards Code which relate to the
establishment of a U.S. inquiry point, a standards information
center, and a technical office for non-agricultural products.
- Standstill - Standstill refers to a commitment of GATT contracting
parties not to impose new trade-restrictive measures during the
Uruguay Round negotiations. See: Rollback.
- State Export Program Database - The SEPD is a trade lead system
maintained by the National Association of State Development Agencies
(NASDA). The SEPD includes information on state operated trade
lead systems.
- State Trading Enterprises - STEs are entities established by
governments to import, export and/or produce certain products.
Examples include: government-operated import/export monopolies
and marketing boards or private companies that receive special
or exclusive privileges from their governments to engage in trading
activities.
- State/Industry-Organized, Government Approved - See: Certified
Trade Missions.
- Statistical Office of the European Community - EUROSTAT provides
European Economic Community-wide statistics on economics, finance,
foreign trade, services, transportation, industry, population,
social conditions, energy, atricutlrual, forestry, and other topics.
Eurostat offices are located in Luxembourg.
- Std. - Standard (timber trade)
- STELA - System for Tracking Export License Applications
- STEs - State Trading Enterprises
- Stev. Liab. - Stevedores' liability
- stevedore - Person whose functions are to load, stow and unload
ships.
- stg - Sterling
- stk - Stock
- STM - State Trade Mission
- stow - Position in a ship where goods are placed for their
- Str. - Steamer
- Strategic Level of Controls - Commodity groupings used for
export control purposes. See: Export Control Classification Number.
- Strd. - Standard
- Structural Adjustment Facility - See: Enhanced Structural Adjustment
Facility.
- Structural Impediments Initiative - The SII was started in
July 1989 to identify and solve structural problems that restrict
bringing two-way trade between the U.S. and Japan into better
balance. Both the U.S. and Japanese governments chose issues of
concern in the other's economy as impediments to trade and current
account imbalances. The areas which the U.S. Government chose
as focus included: (a) Japanese savings and investment patterns,
(b) land use, (c) distribution, (d) keiretsu, (e) exclusionary
business practices, and (f) pricing. Areas which the Japanese
Government chose as focus included: (a) U.S. savings and investment
patterns, (b) corporate investment patterns and supply capacity,
(c) corporate behavior, (d) government regulation, (e) research
and development, (f) export promotion, and (g) workforce education
and training. In a June 1990 report, the U.S. and Japan agreed
to 7 meetings in the following three years to review progress,
discuss problems, and produce annual joint reports.
- Sub-Group on Nuclear Export Coordination - The SNEC is an interagency
review panel which monitors and facilitates the interagency processing
of specific matters related to activities which, in the determination
of any of the members, pose potential policy concerns. The SNEC
is comprised of State (as chair), Energy (as secretariat), Commerce,
Defense, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. The SNEC also includes the Central Intelligence
Agency as an observer. Representatives from other agencies may
be invited as participants or observers.
- Subsidies - GATT does not directly define subsidies. The U.S.
regards a subsidy as a bounty or grant paid for the manufacture,
production, or export of an article. Export subsidies are contingent
on exports; domestic subsidies are conferred on production without
reference to exports. While governments sometimes make outright
payments to firms; subsidies usually take a less direct form (R&D
support, tax breaks, loans on preferential terms, and provision
of raw materials at below-market prices).
- Subsidy - There are two general types of subsidies: export
and domestic. An export subsidy is a benefit conferred on a firm
by the government that is contingent or exports. A domestic subsidy
is a benefit not linked to exports, conferred by the government
upon a specific industry or enterprise or group of industries
or enterprises.
- Substantial Suppliers - If a country supplies approximately
10 percent of the trade in a given item imported to a second country,
the first country is said to have a substantial supplier status.
- Summary Investigation - A 20-day investigation conducted by
the International Trade Administration immediately following filing
of an antidumping petition to ascertain if the petition contains
sufficient information with respect to sales at "less than
fair value" and the injury or threat of material injury to
a domestic industry caused by the alleged sales at "less
than fair value" to warrant the initiation of an antidumping
investigation. See: Tariff Act of 1930.
- Summit Conference - A summit conference is an international
meeting at which heads of government are the chief negotiators,
major world powers are represented, and the meeting serves substantive
rather than ceremonial purposes. The term first came into use
in reference to the Geneva Big Four Conference of 1955.
- Sunflowerseed Oil Assistance Program - SOAP, one of four export
subsidy programs operated by the Department of Agriculture, helps
U.S. exporters meet prevailing world prices for sunflowerseed
oil in targeted markets. USDA pays cash to U.S. exporters as bonuses,
making up the difference between the higher U.S. cost of acquiring
sunflowerseed oil and the lower world price at which it is sold.
- Super 301 - This provision was enacted due to Congressional
concern that the regular Section 301 procedures narrowly limit
U.S. attention to the market access problems of individual sectors
or companies. Super 301 sets procedures to identify and address
within three years certain "priority", systemic trade
restriction policies of other nations. Super 301 was created by
the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. Super 301 authority
expired May 30, 1990.
- Supply Access - Assurances that importing countries will, in
the future, have fair and equitable access at reasonable prices
to supplies of raw materials and other essential imports. Such
assurances should include explicit constraints against the use
of the export embargo as an instrument of foreign policy.
- Support for East European Democracy - The SEED Act, signed
into law in November 1989, contained 25 distinct actions to support
structural adjustment, private sector development, trade and investment,
and educational, cultural, and scientific activities in Poland
and Hungary. Funding for most of the actions was provided by the
Agency for International Development. The SEED Act expired at
the end of fiscal year 1990. Since then support has been provided
under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1991. See: Foreign Assistance
Act of 1991.
- Surveillance - This involves the monitoring of trade practices
to help ensure that governments implement their obligations under
trade agreements. One of the objectives of the negotiating group
on Functioning of the GATT System (FOGS) is to improve GATT surveillance
of trade policies and practices of Contracting Parties.
- Surveillance Body - A body created by the Uruguay Round Trade
Negotiating Committee (TNC) to monitor implementation by contracting
parties of their standstill and rollback commitments. The Surveillance
Body will transmit its records and reports to the TNC, so that
the latter may conduct periodic evaluations of the implementation
of the commitments.
- Suspension of Investigation - A decision to suspend an antidumping
investigation if the exporters who account for substantially all
of the imported merchandise agree to stop exports to the U.S.
or agree to revise their prices promptly to eliminate any dumping
margin. An investigation may be suspended at any time before a
final determination is made. No agreement to suspend an investigation
may be made unless effective monitoring of the agreement is practicable
and is determined to be in the public interest. See: Tariff Act
of 1930.
- Suspension of Liquidation - If affirmative, the preliminary
determination of dumping or subsidization, or final determination
after a negative preliminary determination, provides for suspension
of liquidation of all entries of merchandise subject to the determination
which are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption,
on or after the date of the publication of the notice in the Federal
Register. Customs is directed to require a cash deposit, or the
posting of a bond or other security, for each entry affected equal
to the estimated amount of the subsidy or the amount by which
the fair value exceeds the U.S. price. When an administrative
review is completed, Customs is directed to collect the final
subsidy rate or amount by which the foreign market value exceeds
the U.S. price, and to require for each entry thereafter a cash
deposit equal to the newly determined subsidy rate or margin of
dumping. See: Tariff Act of 1930.
- Swap Network - The swap network is a series of bilateral arrangements
between the Federal Reserve and fourteen foreign central banks
and the Bank for International Settlements providing standby reciprocal
facilities for obtaining foreign currencies. The facilities provide
for the swap (simultaneous spot purchase and forward sale) of
each other's currency by the Federal Reserve and the respective
foreign central bank. Swap drawings typically have a three-month
maturity, with an understanding that they may be more or less
automatically rolled over for another three months.
- Swaps - Swaps take dozens of forms but often entail the exchange
of one type of asset or payment for another. Some of the more
common forms are: cross-border; currency; debt-for-charity; debt-for-commodity;
debt-for-debt; debt-for-development; debt-for-equity; debt-for-export;
debt-for-local-currency; debt-for-nature; discount; dual currency;
interest rate; inward; premium; reverse; and vanilla. Minor variation
in names is common. Currency swaps convert principal from the
lender's currency into the debtor's currency and receiving interest
payments in the debtor's currency. The swap, made to protect the
principal from future changes in foreign exchange rates, involves
a forward exchange contract to recover the currency involved.
Debt swaps entail replacing the foreign liabilities of a debtor
country with ownership or rights of value. A debt-for-equity swap
replaces foreign liabilities with a stake in the debtor country's
national enterprises; a debt-for-export swap replaces foreign
liabilities with an arrangement to receive proceeds from the overseas
sale of the debtor country's products or commodities; a debt-for-debt
swap replaces an existing foreign liability with a new commitment
from the debtor country. Interest rate swaps involve agreements
on the means for exchanging future cash flows. Single currency
interest rate swaps concern exchanging future cash flow in the
same currency and offer a means for modifying the impact of future
changes in interest rates on a company's profitability. Cross
currency interest rate swaps concern exchanging future cash flows
between one currency and another, traded either on a fixed or
floating rate, and offer a means for limited the risk of converting
financial interests between currencies. Swaps also involve arrangements
whereby different sellers of similar commodities swap and deliver
them to each other's customer if such action saves transportation
costs. See: Derivatives.
- SWEDECORP - Swedish International Enterprise Development Corporation
- Swedish International Development Authority - SIDA, an agency
responsible to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, administers the
greater portion of Swedish development cooperation. Swedish development
assistance is directed toward five goals: economic growth, economic
and social equality, economic and political independence, democratic
development, and environmental quality. About 50 percent of Sweden's
development assistance is directed toward a limited number of
designated "program countries" in Africa, Asia, and
Latin America and involves negotiated efforts to integrate external
assistance and long-term development strategies. The remaining
assistance is allocated to UN agencies, international development
banks, and about 90 countries. The Authority was established in
1965; headquarters are in Stockholm, Sweden. See: Swedish International
Enterprise Development Corporation.
- Swedish International Enterprise Development Corporation -
SwedeCorp, a government funded under Sweden's aid program, supports
enterprise development through joint venture investments in developing
countries and in Central and Eastern Europe. The Corporation also
encourages the transfer of industiral and commercial knowledge
from Sweden to third world countries and promotes exports from
developing countries to Sweden. The Corporation was formed in
July 1991 based on a reorganization of international industry
assistance programs; headquarters are in Stockholm, Sweden. See:
Swedish International Development Authority.
- SWIFT - Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Transactions
- Switch Arrangements - A form of countertrade in which unused
purchase rights under government-to-government trade (clearing
agreements) on unwanted goods received by a firm in a countertrade
transaction are sold at a discount to buyers for cash.
- Syn. - Syndicate (Lloyd's)
- System for Tracking Export License Applications - STELA is
a BXA computer-generated voice unit that interfaces with the BXA
database: ECASS (Export Control Automated Support System). STELA
enables a caller to check on an export license by making a telephone
call.
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