1. Foreign trade promotes economic growth because it enables us to obtain goods that we cannot produce ourselves. 2. Foreign trade enables us to buy many things at lower cost. 3. Foreign trade enables foreigners to buy our goods. 4. Foreign trade raises our standard of living. 5. Foreign trade is important to U.S. farms and industries. 6. Foreign trade creates jobs for U.S. workers. a. In 2001, U.S. farmers and businesspeople sold over $730 billion worth of goods to people in other lands. b. The United States normally imports 100 percent of the following items: cocoa, coffee, tea, bananas, carpet wool, silk, and spices. c. Most of the goods imported into the United States last year could have been produced here. d. America’s best customers for its exports are the same countries from which it imports the most goods. e. Exports of U.S.-made aircraft engines declined between 1982 and 1983. The number of workers employed by the aircraft engine in- dustry also declined in the same period. f. Television sets would be much more expensive to U.S. consumers if the United States had to produce all the sets in use in this country.
