在翻译free trade area或者是free trade zone的时候，与之对应的词只有一个，就是‘自由贸易区’。前些日子，在翻译一个法律文书的时候，看到一同事把我国沿海某城市的‘自由贸易区’误译成‘free trade area’，险些遭到美国客户的投诉。
我们先来看看这两个词的英文原文注释，
Free trade area is a type of trade bloc, a designated group of countries that have agreed to eliminate tariffs, quotas and preferences on most (if not all) goods and services traded between them.
Free trade zone is an area of a country where some normal trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas are eliminated and bureaucratic requirements are lowered in hopes of attracting new business and foreign investments.
很明显，flee trade area 指实行自由贸易的一批国家。它们是为了通过降低或取消关税以消除成员国之间的贸易障碍而组成的部分国家联盟。而free trade zone 却指一个国家内免征关税的贸易区域，范围显然要小得多。
所以，当我们翻译这个词的时候，要先看清楚这个自由贸易区有没有‘跨国’的性质。