Critical Reasoning

The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big American steel mills. In fact, the quotas will help "mini-mills" flourish in the United States. Those small domestic mills will take more business from the big American steel mills than would have been taken by the foreign steel mills in the absence of quotas.

Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence above?

A) Quality rather than price is a major factor in determining the type of steel to be used for a particular application

B) Foreign steel mills have long produced grades of steel comparable in quality to the steel produced by the big American mills

C) American quotas on imported goods have often induced other countries to impose similar quotas on American goods.

D) Domestic "mini-mills" consistently produce better grades of steel than do the big American mills

E) Domestic "mini-mills" produce low-volume specialized types of steel that are not produced by the big American steel mills

OA:E

can someone explain this one??

I chose B.

thank u!

the biggest problem with B is the fact that it does not rule out the possibility that small mills might start producing the same type of comparable business after all people do innovative things to stay in business .
E on the other hand make it clear that these two mills (big and small ) have different market all together

The claim says small mills will benefit more as a result of quotas on import steel. The question stem asks for the option that suggests SMALL firms will not benefit despite the quotas.
Only E states something to this effect. Small mills produce a vey specialized kind of steel not produced by big american firms. So effectively small firms cannot replace the big american firms by supplying a different type of steel. Quotas or no quotas - small firms will not be able to capitalize on the lost orders of big firms as it doesn't produce that kind of steel. Instead it produces a very specialized variety.