Country X complains that country Y's high tariffs on imported goods ha

I don't think that option C is the opposite of what we are looking for.

Firstly, the underlying assumption in the argument is that country X's cars are not inferior to Y's. Country Y's tariffs is the only reason for which country X's cars don't sell there. So author implies that country X's cars are equal or better on quality than country Y's cars.

Between A and C, A is more solid weakener than C. In A, we know that in a country where there are no tariffs, Y sells more. In that case if country X's cars prices are not artificially high, how come that country X still doesn't manage to sell more cars ? This choice nicely decreases our belief in the author's reasoning.

In my opinion, option C is wrong because we have to make several assumptions to consider this choice a weakener. Firstly, we don't know how many cars country A and B export to that country. Maybe country X exports 100, whereas country Y exports 20. Maybe out of cars exported country X sells 30 cars and country Y sells 19. This doesn't mean that country X's cars are superior in quality. Other causes may be present for more car sales for country X.

I don't agree with the OA .
Even if the products of country Y sells better than country X in some country Q , it is no proof that cars of country X wont sell good in country Y even if the tariffs were reduced .Maybe the residents of country Y like cars of country X and just because its expensive , people aren't able to afford it .

Can someone explain me this ?

I can try to tell you my thought process and maybe it will help slightly.

The question isn’t asking us to show that X’s cars would sell better if the tariffs were reduced. Rather, the question asks us to find the answer the most effectively weakens the explanation provided by country X. We just need to show that it’s possible that Y’s tariffs are *not* the reason for the poor sales of X’s cars in Country Y.

X is saying that the reason why our cars do not sell well in country Y is because of the high tariffs. X is, in effect, offering a Casual Claim: Y’s high tariffs are the reason why our cars (X’s cars) do not sell well in Y. Presumably, country Y is not placing high taxes on its own cars as well. Otherwise, the argument would not tell us that X places low tariffs on Y’s cars and then continue about “achieving an equitable balance of trade”

Basically, X is arguing that the high tariffs (and not any other reason) are why X’s cars don’t sell well in country Y. If we can show that there might be some alternative explanation as to why X’s cars are not selling well in country Y, then we can undermine this explanation.


In any of these questions, it really does come down to finding the most effective option. There are many “close” answers in the official questions, but there is always a reason why the correct answer gets the job done better.

Furthermore, the directions in the O.G. do inform test takers to use a fair amount of common sense when approaching these questions. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Y is selling its cars in its own country without as high of an impediment as the high tariffs placed on X’s cars (otherwise, why else would Country X even be complaining?)

The question stem is asking us only to “undermine” country X’s explanation, not effectively eliminate its possibility.

What A does is provide us with an “experiment”, in a sense, in which the Tariffs are equalized for both countries cars. X’s cars are able to compete with Y’s cars on an even playing field without the handicap of costing much more due to Y’s tariffs.

In this situation, country Y’s cars don’t just outsell country X’s cars: Y’s cars significantly outsell X’s cars.

This provides us with enough information to at least doubt that X’s explanation is valid. Perhaps the high tariffs are NOT the reason why X’s cars are not selling well in country Y. Afterall, when we took away the presumed “cause” (country Y’s high tariffs), country X’s cars did not sell nearly as well as country Y’s cars.

This at least suggests that X’s cars may be performing poorly in country Y because X’s cars are just inferior to those sold in Y.

Following the O.G.’s reasoning on official questions will always be more helpful in the end though.

I hope maybe something helped? Without the explanation from Kaplan, it’s hard to confirm the answer for yourself….I’ve been there way too many times.




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