For each of the following scenarios, determine which benefit of international trade applies: lower-priced goods, increased variety of products, or access to scarce resources. a. Today most television sets bought in the United Stated are made in China; however, this was not the case twenty years ago. (Click to select) b. In large grocery stores in the United States, consumers can buy noodles from Asia, soups from France, pickled herring from Scandinavia, and beer from Germany. (Click to select) c. The United States has become a prime location for producers of semiconductors, whose products are then exported to nations around the world. This choice to produce in the United States is largely due to the access to the high-skilled workforce that is required for this type of production. (Click to select) d. While many developed nations have at least one domestic car manufacturer, consumers in these nations also have access to cars produced in other nations. (Click to select) e. The United States has long been the world's largest exporter of wheat. The access to vast, fertile, and highly productive soil combined with high-technology farming practices have made the United States a very cost-efficient producer of agricultural goods.

Blue computers, a major pc manufacturer in the united states, currently has plants in kentucky and pennsylvania. the kentucky plant has a capacity of 1 million units a year and the pennsylvania plant has a capacity of 1.5 million units a year. the firm divides the united states into five markets: northeast, southeast, midwest, south, and west. each pc sells for $1,000. the firm anticipates a 50 perc~nt growth in demand (in each region) this year (after which demand will stabilize) and wants to build a plant with a capacity of 1.5 million units per year to accommodate the growth. potential sites being considered are in north carolina and california. currently the firm pays federal, state, and local taxes on the income from each plant. federal taxes are 20 percent of income, and all state and local taxes are 7 percent of income in each state. north carolina has offered to reduce taxes for the next 10 years from 7 percent to 2 percent. blue computers would like to take the tax break into consideration when planning its network. consider income over the next 10 years in your analysis. assume that all costs remain unchanged over the 10 years. use a discount factor of 0.1 for your analysis. annual fixed costs, production and shipping costs per unit, and current regional demand (before the 50 percent growth) are shown in table 5-13. (a) if blue computers sets an objective of minimizing total fixed and variable costs, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? (b) if blue computers sets an objective of maximizing after-tax profits, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? variable production and shipping cost ($/unit) annual fixed cost northeast southeast midwest south west (million$) kentucky 185 180 175 175 200 150 pennsylvania 170 190 180 200 220 200 n. carolina 180 180 185 185 215 150 california 220 220 195 195 175 150 demand ('000 units/month) 700 400 400 300 600