-------------- I -------------- IBRD. See World Bank. ICA. See International Commodity Agreement. ICITO. See General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. IDA. See International Development Association. IEEPA. See International Emergency Economic Powers Act. IFC. See International Finance Corporation. ILLUSTRATIVE LIST. Contained in the Annex to the GATT Subsidies Code, the Illustrative List of Export Subsidies enumerates certain practices that constitute countervailable export subsidies, within the terms of the code, when provided or mandated by a government with respect to goods produced for export. These include direct subsidies to a firm or industry contingent upon export performance, currency retention schemes or other practices that involve a bonus, preferential internal transport and freight charges, remission of direct taxes, provision of services or goods on preferential terms, export credit guarantees, etc. See also Countervailing Duties; and Subsidy. IMF. See International Monetary Fund. IMPAIRMENT (OF TRADE INTERESTS). See Consultations; and Dispute Settlement. IMPORT LICENSING. See Licensing. IMPORT QUOTAS. See Quantitative Restrictions. IMPORT RELIEF. Alleviation of competitive pressures on a domestic industry and its employees through restrictions on the inflow of goods into the relevant market from other countries, as through the imposition of tariffs or quantitative restrictions on imports. See also Competitive; Escape Clause; Market; and Protection. IMPORT RESTRICTIONS. See Non-Tariff Barriers; Protection; and Tariff. IMPORT-SENSITIVE PRODUCTS. See Sensitive Products. IMPORT SUBSTITUTION. An attempt by a country to reduce imports (and hence foreign exchange expenditures) by encouraging the development of domestic industries regardless of domestic inefficiencies. See also Industrial Policy; Infant Industry Argument; and Mercantilism. IMPORTS. The inflow of goods and services into a country's market for consumption. A country enhances its welfare by importing a broader range of higher quality goods and services at lower cost than it could produce domestically. The expansion of world trade since the end of World War II has therefore been a principal factor underlying a general rise in living standards in most countries. See also Comparative Advantage; Consumption;Customs; Levy; Macroeconomics; Market; Price Elasticity of Demand; Protectionism; U.S. International Trade Commission; and Welfare. INCOTERMS. Model terms promulgated by the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris to govern international sales contracts. The paradigm Incoterms contract is a CIF contract. INDIRECT TAX. A tax that is levied on expenditure, such as a sales tax imposed at the retail level, excise tax, or value added tax. Some economists say indirect taxes are regressive (in that taxes on commodities burden the poor more than the rich), and inflationary (since they raise prices). See also Border Tax Adjustments; Direct Tax; Excise Tax; Inflation; Tax; and Value Added Tax. INDUSTRIAL POLICY. Encompasses traditional government policies intended to provide a favorable economic climate for the development of industry in general or specific industrial sectors. Instruments of industrial policy may include tax incentives to promote investments or exports, direct or indirect subsidies, special financing arrangements, protection against foreign competition, worker training programs, regional development programs, assistance for research and development, and measures to help small business firms. Historically the term industrial policy has been associated with at least some degree of centralized economic planning or indicative planning,but this connotation is not always intended by its contemporary advocates. See also Infant Industry Argument; Investment Performance Requirements; Managed Trade; MITI; Mercantilism; Protection; and Subsidy. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. The emergence of the factory system of production, in which workers are brought together in one plant and supplied tools, machines and materials with which they work in return for wages. Narrowly speaking, the Industrial Revolution was spearheaded by the rapid changes in the manufacture of textiles, particularly in England, between about 1770 and 1830. More broadly, the term applies to continuing structural economic change in the world economy. The "domestic system" of production prevailed in the 16th and 17th centuries before the Industrial Revolution. See also Domestic System of Production; Production; Structural Change; and Textiles. INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES. See Developed Countries. INFANT INDUSTRY ARGUMENT. The view that "temporary protection" for a new industry or firm in a particular country through tariff and non-tariff barriers to imports can help it to become established and eventually competitive in world markets. Historically, new industries that are soundly based and efficiently operated have experienced declining costs as output expands and production experience is acquired. However, industries that have been established and operated with heavy dependence on direct or indirect government subsidies have sometimes found it difficult to relinquish that support. The rationale underlying the Generalized System of Preferences is comparable to that of the infant industry argument. See also Competitive; Generalized System of Preferences; Protection; and Subsidy. INFLATION. A general increase in the prices of most goods and services within a market, resulting in diminishing purchasing power of a given nominal sum of the currency used in the market. Inflation results when demand increases more rapidly than supply, as when salaries and wages increase more rapidly than production. Since World War II, inflation has been a persistent phenomenon in most countries. See also Currency; Demand; Indirect Tax; Money; Price; Purchasing Power; and Supply. INFORMATICS. A term used to describe the complex of industries and products based on digital information-processing technologies. This includes computers, computer peripherals, computer software, data processing and most categories of microelectronic components. INFRASTRUCTURE. The underlying capital of a society embodied in its roads and other transportation and communications systems,as well as its electric power, water supplies, sewage systems and other public services. Sometimes called social overhead capital, infrastructure may also include health, education and skills of a country's population. See also Capital; Economic Development; and Welfare. INHERITANCE TAX. See Direct Tax. INJURY. See Countervailing Duties; Dumping; Escape Clause; Market Disruption; Peril Point; Safeguards; and U.S. International Trade Commission. INPUT DUMPING. See Downstream Dumping. INSURANCE. An agreement or contract (commonly called a policy) between the insured, who pays a premium to the insurer, who in return promises to compensate the insured if he suffers specified losses, as through fire, theft or automobile accident. The premiums are so calculated that the total amount paid by all insured parties will enable the insurer to pay claims of policy holders and administrative costs. In effect, insurance spreads risk so that an individual who suffers loss is compensated at the expense of all those who insure against it. See also Capital Market; Export Credit Insurance; Premium; Reinsurance; Risk; Services; and Underwriter. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. Ownership conferring the right to possess, use or dispose of products created by human ingenuity, including patents, trademarks and copyrights. See also Copyright; Patent; Technology; Trademarks; Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights; Trafficking in Counterfeit Goods and Services; Uruguay Round; and World Intellectual Property Organization. INTEREST. A sum paid for the use of borrowed capital, usually expressed in terms of a rate or percentage of the capital involved (the interest "rate"), which is normally higher when the risk (including the probability of inflation) is greater. See also Capital; Credit; Inflation; Loan; Profit; and Risk. INTERDEPENDENCE. See Structural Change. INTERMEDIATE GOODS. See Capital Goods. INTERNATIONAL ARRANGEMENT ON EXPORT CREDITS. An agreement among 22 OECD governments that they will not lower interest rates for export credits below specified levels or offer most tied-aid credits without informing other OECD governments. The arrangement seeks to minimize subsidization of exports through official export credits offered at less than market rates of interest and to curb the use of tied-aid credits that distort trade patterns. It contains no enforcement provisions, but procedures encouraging transparency in official export credit and aid activities encourage compliance. See also Credit; Export Subsidies; Interest; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; Subsidy; and Transparency. INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT. See World Bank. INTERNATIONAL COMMODITY AGREEMENT (ICA). An international understanding, usually reflected in a legal instrument, relating to trade in a particular commodity, and based on terms negotiated and accepted by most of the countries that export and import commercially significant quantities of the commodity. Some commodity agreements such as those for coffee, cocoa,natural rubber and sugar have centered on economic provisions intended to stabilize the market price within a negotiated price range for the commodity through the use of buffer stocks or export quotas or both. Of these, only rubber currently has economic provisions as part of the agreement. Other commodity agreements(such as existing agreements for jute and jute products, olive oil and wheat) seek to promote cooperation among producers and consumers through improved consultations, exchange of information, research and development, and export promotion. See also Buffer Stocks; Commodity; Common Fund; Export Promotion; Export Quotas; and Integrated Program for Commodities. INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON THE SIMPLIFICATION AND HARMONIZATION OF CUSTOMS PROCEDURES. See Kyoto Convention. INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION (IDA). An affiliate of the World Bank, established in 1960, that extends concessional loans to the least developed countries and other relatively poor countries to finance long-term high-priority development projects. IDA resources are contributed by 33 donor countries. The World Bank would not be able to make loans to many of the poorest countries, including most countries in Africa, without IDA resources. See also Least Developed Countries; Official Development Assistance; Soft Loan; and World Bank. INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY ECONOMIC POWERS ACT (IEEPA). U.S. legislation enacted in 1977 that extended emergency powers previously granted the U.S. president by the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (TWEA). Specifically, the legislation enables the president, after declaring that a national emergency exists because of a threat from a source outside the United States, to investigate,regulate, compel or prohibit virtually any economic transaction involving property in which a foreign country or national has an interest. As of January 1992, sanctions administered by the Treasury Department were in force under TWEA against Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea, as well as certain controls on the involvement of U.S. persons in third-country strategic exports. IEEPA programs at the beginning of 1992 included Iraq, Libya and Haiti. Treasury also administered sanctions against Iran under IEEPA as well as under the International Security and Development Cooperation Act. INTERNATIONAL FINANCE CORPORATION (IFC). An affiliate of the World Bank, established in 1956, to promote commercial enterprises in developing countries through loans and equity financing comparable to those extended by investment banks. It also facilitates the establishment of partnerships between private investors, wherever they may be located, and capital markets in the Third World. It does not require government guarantees. See also Capital Market; Market Economy; Private Sector; and World Bank. INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF). An international financial institution proposed at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference and established in 1946 that seeks to stabilize the international monetary system as a sound basis for the orderly expansion of international trade. Specifically, among other things, the Fund monitors exchange rate policies of member countries, lends them foreign exchange resources to support their adjustment policies when they experience balance of payments difficulties, and provides them financial assistance through a special "compensatory financing facility" when they experience temporary shortfalls in commodity export earnings. See also Adjustment: Balance of Payments Consultations; Bretton Woods Conference; Compensatory Finance; Conditionality; Convertibility; Exchange Rate; and Special Drawing Rights. INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTER UNCTAD/GATT (ITC). A quasi-autonomous, Geneva-based organization within the United Nations system (reporting to both GATT and UNCTAD) that provides a wide range of technical assistance to developing countries seeking to develop and promote their export potential. The ITC is the recognized U.N. Development Program executing agency in the field of trade promotion. See also Export Promotion; General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; and United Nations Development Program. INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION (ITC). See U.S. International Trade Commission. INTERNATIONAL TRADE ORGANIZATION (ITO). See General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR THE PROTECTION OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY. See World Intellectual Property Organization. INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR THE PROTECTION OF LITERARY AND ARTISTIC WORKS. See World Intellectual Property Organization. INTERNATIONAL WHEAT AGREEMENT. See Kennedy Round. INVESTMENT PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS. Special conditions imposed on direct foreign investment by recipient governments, sometimes requiring commitments to export a certain percentage of the output, to purchase given supplies locally, or to ensure the employment of a specified percentage of local labor and management. See also Industrial Policy. INVESTOR. See Entrepreneur; and Risk. INVISIBLE TRADE. Items such as freight, insurance and financial services that are included in a country's balance of payments accounts (in the "current" account), even though they are not recorded as physically visible exports and imports. See also Balance of Payments; Current Account; Services; and Visible Trade. IPC. See Integrated Program for Commodities. IRANIAN TRANSACTIONS. See International Emergency Economic Powers Act. ISLAND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. See Least Developed Countries. ITC. See International Trade Center UNCTAD/GATT; and U.S. International Trade Commission. ITO. See General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; and Multilateral Trade Organization.