摘　要
  
随着经济全球化和跨国公司的发展,越来越多的外国商人来中国设立他们的工厂，而中国人也出国到其他国家和地区从事商务。作为商务英语的一个重要部分,贸易术语在许多国际业务领域被广泛使用。本文搜集了一系列在商务英语外贸函电中所使用的经贸术语，对其进行分析研究，意在分析国际商务英语中贸易术语的一些详细特征，同时提出一些方法让商人掌握以及使用适当的贸易术语,从而避免在实际使用中经常出现的错误和误解。研究主要集中在回答下列问题：贸易术语有哪些特征？贸易术语有哪些功能？如何避免在翻译过程中出现的错误？如何正确地翻译贸易术语？商务英语外贸函电中贸易术语的研究是非常重要的，它可以帮助更加高效和方便地处理商务事务；通过这样的分析,希望本研究可以指导人们更好地从事英语商务活动。

关键词：贸易术语；特征；翻译

Abstract

With the economic globalization and the multinational corporations’ development, more and more foreign businessmen come to China to set up their factories and also Chinese people go abroad to cooperate with other countries and areas in business. As one important part of Business English, terms of trade are widely used in many areas in international business. This thesis tries to find out and analyze those terms of trade in foreign business correspondence. The purposes of this study are to find out the detailed characteristics of terms of trade according its usage in international business English, to see the functions of terms of trade in foreign business correspondence, to propose some suggestions for businessmen to enhance their mastery of appropriate translation of terms of trade, and then to avoid many common mistakes and misunderstandings in practical use. In other words, the research mainly focuses on answering the following four questions. First, what characteristics do terms of trade have? Second, what functions do terms of trade have? Third, how to avoid the mistakes in the translation of terms of trade? Forth, how to translate the terms of trade correctly? The study of terms of trade is of great importance. It can help people deal with transaction more efficiently and conveniently. Upon this analysis, it is hoped that this study can give some guidance to people who engaged in business activities.

Key words: terms of trade; characteristics; translation

1 Introduction
1.1 The background and significance of the study
 With the development of China’s economy and comprehensive national strength, the foreign trade and economic cooperation with other countries and areas have greatly augmented especially when China has entered into the WTO. At the same time, production manufactures in one area but expenditure takes place everywhere all over the world, so it is impossible for every businessman to have direct conversation with his customers and suppliers. Since late 1960s and early 1970s, business English, as a branch of English for specific purposes, is separated from the unique terminology and general English, and has gradually led to many language courses in many countries of the world. And nowadays, more than 400 colleges and universities have opened the subject of Business English. As is known to all, there is a close contact between the international finance and the country’s domestic finance.