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protectionism

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by minhchau1979 » Sun Aug 24, 2008 7:59 am
Trade official: Country X deserves economic retribution for its protectionism. However, it is crucial that we recognize that there are overriding considerations in this case. We should still sell to X the agricultural equipment it ordered: there is high demand in our country for agricultural imports from X.
The argument depends on assuming which one of the following principles?
(A) Agricultural components of international trade are more important than nonagricultural commodities.
(B) The ability to keep popular products available domestically is less important than our being able to enter international market.
(C) We should never jeopardize the interests of our people to punish a protectionist country.
(D) In most cases, punishing a protectionist country should have priority over the interests of our people.
(E) We should balance the justice of an action with the consequences for our interests of undertaking that action.
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by niraj_a » Sun Aug 24, 2008 8:36 am
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Re: protectionism

by California4jx » Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:01 am
minhchau1979 wrote: However, it is crucial that we recognize that there are overriding considerations in this case.

(C) We should never jeopardize the interests of our people to punish a protectionist country.
IMO: C
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by wonder » Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:14 am
i came down to C and E. But C was very certain with 'never' so I'l go with E.

Rest of them were elimininated...so whats the OA?
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by NSNguyen » Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:46 am
IMO: C
Please share your idea and your reasoning :D
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by banker1 » Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:50 am
wonder wrote:i came down to C and E. But C was very certain with 'never' so I'l go with E.

Rest of them were elimininated...so whats the OA?
I agree with what you said.
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by jeffxujian » Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:44 am
IMO C

A went outside the scope, conclusion was we shall sell to country x, assuming that we can not jeopardize our citizen's demand on County X's agriculture imports.

B that is too broad

C If you see my reasoning above, you will know that this answer is correct

D this will weaken the question, if punishment is priority, we should not always sell to country X what they need

E sounds good, but it does not touch the original passage as closely as answer C

hope it helps
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by anju » Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:15 pm
I'll go with E.

as per passage "we recognize that there are overriding considerations in this case" which shows that depending on the situation the action is decided.

C is strongly worded which means on all occassions "We should never jeopardize the interests of our people to punish a protectionist country" and as per E "should balance the justice of an action with the consequences for our interests " and hence I'll go with E.

What's the OA?
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:26 pm
anju wrote:I'll go with E.

as per passage "we recognize that there are overriding considerations in this case" which shows that depending on the situation the action is decided.

C is strongly worded which means on all occassions "We should never jeopardize the interests of our people to punish a protectionist country" and as per E "should balance the justice of an action with the consequences for our interests " and hence I'll go with E.

What's the OA?
Excellent reasoning!

An assumption is somethign that the author is taking for granted as being true in order for the conclusion to hold. In other words, an assumption is something that MUST be true in order for the argument to stick together.

A common trap in assumption questions is answers that are too extreme. Does the argument depend on the premise "We should never jeopardize the interests of our people to punish a protectionist country"? No, it doen't. It depends on the premise that in at least some cases, the country's interests override retribution.

So, (E) must be true in order for the argument to hold together. (C) could be true, but that's not what this question demands.
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by john83.amar » Wed May 11, 2016 12:24 pm
I will Go with option E in this case
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