Ch. 21: International Trade
The membership of the WTO includes about __________ nations.
150
A new American import quota on imported steel would be likely to:
increase American production of steel.
Despite interlocking import quotas, tariffs, and nontariff barriers, the share of apparel sold in the United States that is imported rose from about _________ in 1999 to about ________ today.
50%-75%
The acronym GATT stands for:
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
It is sometimes argued that nation should not depend too heavily on other countries for supplies of certain key products. This argument is commonly known as the _______________.
National Interest Argument
__________________ are ways that a nation can draw up regulations, inspections, and paperwork to make it more costly or difficult to import products.
Nontariff barriers
The race to the bottom scenario of global environmental degradation is explained roughly like this:
Profit-seeking multinational companies shift their production from countries with strong environmental standards to countries with weak standards, thus reducing their costs and increasing their profits.
There are nontariff barriers in the form of _______________ regulations, in which certain textiles are made in the United States, shipped to other countries, combined in making apparel with textiles made in those other countries—and then re-exported back to the United States at a lower tariff rate.
Rules of origin
Which of the following would be expected if the tariff on foreign-produced automobiles were increased?
The supply of foreign automobiles to the domestic market would be reduced, causing auto prices to rise.
Why would foreign firms export a product at less than its cost of production—which presumably means making a loss?
This may be part of a long-term strategy in which foreign firms would sell at below the cost of production in the short-term for a time, and when they have driven out the domestic U.S. competition, they would then raise prices.
Which of the following is the best example of a tariff?
a $1000-per-car fee imposed on all small cars imported
Politicians often argue for tariff increases in order to reduce the nation's dependence on imports. If tariffs are increased, the long-run effect is most likely to be:
a decrease in both American imports and exports.
Which of the following is the best example of a quota?
a limit imposed on the number of men's suits that can be imported from a foreign country
A tariff differs from a quota in that a tariff is:
a tax imposed on imports, whereas a quota is an absolute limit to the number of units of a good that can be imported.
Suppose the government of Taiwan subsidized its watch-making industry, enabling Taiwanese producers to undersell foreign watch producers. The law of comparative advantage indicates that watch-importing nations would best take advantage of the Taiwanese subsidization policy by:
accepting the subsidy of the Taiwanese government, making the appropriate adjustment for the resources temporarily displaced from the domestic watch-making industry.
As international trade increases, it contributes to a shift in jobs away from industries where that economy does not have a(n) __________ advantage and toward industries where it has a(n) ___________ advantage.
comparative; comparative
During the second half of the twentieth century, trade barriers have in general:
declined quite substantially both in the U.S. economy and in the global economy.
The infant industry argument for protectionism suggests that an industry must be protected in the early stages of its development so that:
domestic producers can attain the economies of scale to allow them to compete in world markets.
____________ means selling goods below their cost of production.
dumping
Which of the following is not a short-run impact of imposing quotas on the American industries they seek to protect?
government tax revenues increase
An import quota or tariff on French wine that raises the prices for wine will probably:
hurt domestic wine drinkers but help domestic wineries, which will gain from the higher prices.
_____________ are numerical limitations on the quantity of products that can be imported.
import quotas
Tariffs are taxes imposed on _________________.
imported products
After the USA introduces a tariff in the market for gigastraps, the price of gigastraps in the USA will:
increase
Raising an existing tariff on grapes from Argentina will:
increase American consumption of domestically produced grapes.
Introducing a tariff on vitamin Z would:
increase American consumption of domestically produced vitamin Z.
Import tariffs generally ________ the output of domestic producers of the affected products and also _________ the output of domestic exporters.
increase, decrease
An import quota does which of the following?
increases the price of the domestic goods to consumers
________________________ is theoretically possible, even sensible: give an industry a short-term indirect subsidy through protection, and then reap the long-term economic benefits of having a vibrant healthy industry.
infant industry argument
Tariffs and other trade restrictions increase the domestic scarcity of products from abroad. Such policies benefit domestic producers of the restricted products at the expense of domestic consumers." This statement:
is essentially correct.
Economists would say tariffs:
limit voluntary exchanges.
Low-wage U.S. workers suffer from protectionism in all the industries that they don't work in, because:
protectionism forces them to pay higher prices for basic necessities like clothing and food.
Tariffs result in a decrease in consumer surplus because:
the price of the protected good increases and quantity consumed decreases.
If Japan does not have a comparative advantage in producing rice, the consequences of adopting a Japanese policy reducing or eliminating imports of rice into the country would include:
the real incomes of Japanese rice producers would rise, but the real incomes of Japanese rice consumers would fall.
International trade is fundamentally a
win-win situation