Nhận biết (M1)

To measure whether countries in free trade agreements (FTAs)—agreements among nations to reduce tariffs, duties, and other trade barriers—experience changes in total agricultural exports, economist Kayode Ajewole and colleagues calculated average export growth rates for several countries over the five years before and the five years after entering an FTA with the United States. The graph shows the results for three countries in the study. Consulting the graph, a student claims that joining an FTA increases the rate of growth of a country’s total agricultural exports.

Which choice best describes data from the graph that weaken the student’s claim?

• A.

  All the countries shown had positive growth in agricultural exports over the five years after joining their respective FTAs, but their rates of export growth varied.

• B.

  Although agricultural exports from Mexico grew over the five years after Mexico joined NAFTA, their growth rate was higher in the five years before NAFTA.

• C.

  Over the five years after El Salvador joined CAFTA-DR, agricultural exports from El Salvador grew at a rate of about 21.5 percent, which is higher than the rate over the five years before El Salvador joined the agreement.

• D.

  Although agricultural exports from Nicaragua grew over the five years after Nicaragua joined CAFTA-DR, their growth rate was even higher in the five years before CAFTA-DR.