loophole: 漏洞；空子

商务部近日决定，国家今年将建立外贸“黑名单”制度，以整饬对外贸易秩序。本周二，《低开出口发票行为处罚暂行办法》将开始实施，政府部门将依法对“有低开出口发票行为”的对外贸易经营者进行处罚。据介绍，由于一些国家海关制度尚不完善、管理层面存在漏洞，所以，低开出口发票问题在国际贸易中比较普遍。一些中国企业在向这些国家出口商品时，往往会应不法进口商的要求提供票面价格低于实际出口报关价格的发票，以帮进口商达到逃漏进口税的目的。

As of Tuesday, a temporary method, aiming to penalize domestic exporters who issue self-made invoices with a face value less than their actual export volume, will be put into effect.

"Such transgression has been a long-standing issue in China as management loopholes always exist in the customs system of some countries, which invited their own importers to rack their brains to evade import duties," said Lu Jianhua, director of the Foreign Trade Department.

报道中的loophole就是我们常说的“漏洞；空子”，loophole原指“墙上的小洞或小缝”，尤指“窥孔” 或“枪眼”（通过这个小洞可以进行射击）。

现在人们常用loophole的引申意：a way of escaping a difficulty, especially: an omission or ambiguity in the wording of a contract or law that provides a means of evading compliance（逃避困难的一个办法，尤指人们“因合同或法律词句中的疏漏或含糊不清”而找到的一种不遵守合约的方法）。举两个例子：

Through an arrow loophole he commanded a view upon the farther side.（他从一个箭洞里可以观察到那边的动静。）

People who can afford to hire shrewd lawyers often find legal loopholes enabling them to escape most taxes.（那些雇得起精明律师的人往往能找到法律上的漏洞，从而使他们逃避大部分税款。）