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Business Words in the News
Friday 23 May 2003
Vocabulary from the business news. Listen to and read the report then find explanations of difficult words below.

 Mobile phone
Mobile Phones in Vietnam
Summary: Mobile telephone companies have been pushing the government of Vietnam to drop taxes to help fight the huge trade in smuggled handsets.
  
The NewsListen 
 The mobile phone companies argue that reducing taxes will make legally imported phones more attractive than the cheaper smuggled models. Consumers can save about forty dollars by buying what many call “a hand luggage phone” carried into the country tax free. They're often sold by the same shops which stock the legally imported models.

The telecoms ministry says that last year there were more than seven hundred thousand phones sold in Vietnam. Two thirds of them had been smuggled in. But Nokia, which sells some of the most popular phones, estimates that figure has jumped. Company officials say that even more smugglers have entered the market, since the principals of a major distributor, Doug Nam Associates, were prosecuted for a multi-million dollar tax fraud.

 
  
The WordsListen
 
 imported
when goods are brought from one country to your own

 
  
 smuggled
when someone takes people or things illegally or secretly from one place to another

 
  
 tax free
you do not have to pay any money on the goods that provide a country with public services

 
  
 stock
the total amount of goods in a shop

 
  
 estimates
an approximate calculation

 
  
 figure
number

 
  
 the market
the number of people who want to buy something

 
  
 distributor
a person, company or organisation that that supplies goods or provisions to shops, businesses or countries

 
  
 fraud
gaining money by deceit

 
  
 
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