A week after the Ministry of Heavy Industries rescued Glasgow’s shipya

A week after the Ministry of Heavy Industries rescued Glasgow’s shipyards from closure, it announced that the Royal Navy warships will be built in Scotland, provided the labor unions withdraw their protests.

Because all events happened in the past, the use of "will be" is unacceptable. Therefore eliminate A, D and E.

Consider B and C, it's quite a tricky sentence since the past perfect action happens before certain event that is the conclusion of the action.

Timeline: (1) earliest => (2) past => (3) now

Timeline in this sentence: (1) the Ministry rescued => (2) it announced that => (3) provided the labor unions withdraw

Remember rule of past-perfect tense is: if there are two events in the past A and B, past-perfect tense is appropriate use if event A must end when event B interrupts it.

Then, it had announced ... the labor unions withdrew their protests.

Hence C correct.

(A) rescued Glasgow’s shipyards from closure, it announced that the Royal Navy warships will be
(B) rescued Glasgow’s shipyards from closure, it announced that the Royal Navy warships would be
(C) rescued Glasgow’s shipyards from closure, it had announced that the Royal Navy warships would be
(D) had rescued Glasgow’s shipyards from closure, it announced that the Royal Navy warships will be
(E) had rescued Glasgow’s shipyards from closure, it had announced that the Royal Navy warships will be

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Dont agree with C here.
Rescuing of shipyards was done before the announcement.
So we need had rescued.

A week after the Ministry of Heavy Industries rescued Glasgow’s shipyards from closure, it announced that the Royal Navy warships will be built in Scotland, provided the labor unions withdraw their protests.

Clues
1) Provided -> would be(O), will be (X)
2) A week after -> had rescued / announced (O), rescued / announced (O)
only two cases are OK

A week after the Ministry of Heavy Industries rescued Glasgow’s shipyards from closure, it announced that the Royal Navy warships will be built in Scotland, provided the labor unions withdraw their protests.

Clues
1) Provided -> would be(O), will be (X)
2) A week after -> had rescued / announced (O), rescued / announced (O)
only two cases are OK

The sequence of events in the past isThe sentence conveys annoucement of a plan/proposal in the past hence "Would" is preferred, thus answer must be (B), errors in other options highlighted in RED.

PS : IMHO past perfect is unnecessary here, as the sequence is specifically stated by the use of the highlighted part in the Original Sentence.

Would someone pls explain what is wrong with option D,

Though once we have before & after kind of clause to convey about timeline then usage of past perfect tense is optional, but even if use its not wrong.
Same goes with option D, where "had rescued Glasgow’s shipyards from closure" occurred in first place so it is in past perfect tense. Then it was the act of announcement sometime in recent past. And then act of building itself, that is "will be built", which would be performed in future.

SO option D looks be fine.

Experts pls suggest.

Why is 'would be' correct and 'will be' incorrect here?

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.