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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 09 Apr 2021, 10:01
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Hi,

I am unable to understand the stimulus especially the big picture, even after going through the expert reply. Could you please help?
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 09 May 2021, 03:35
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aarkay87
Hi,

I am unable to understand the stimulus especially the big picture, even after going through the expert reply. Could you please help?
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Hey aarkay87, the stimulus revolves around the introduction of a quote on imports. It's basically saying that the Small mills would take away the business of the big mills if the quota is introduced as opposed to the foreign mills taking away the business of the big mills. Makes sense, but we are not sure what kind of steel these mills are producing and hence the answer is D.

Hope this helps, but let me know if it does not!
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 08 Jan 2022, 10:26
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Effect: Mini mills will take more business from Big American Steel
Negate: Mini mills will not take more business from Big American Steel
E: This is specialized, specialized stuff are normally sold in lesser amount. I was tricked by the answer.
What a good question
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 06 May 2022, 21:42
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Quote:
The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big American steel mills. In fact, the quotas will help “mini-mills” flourish in the United States. Those small domestic mills will take more business from the big Americal steel mills than would have been taken by the foreign steel mills in the absence of quotas.

Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence above?

(A) Quality rather than price is a major factor in determining the type of steel to be used for a particular application.
(B) Foreign steel mills have long produced grades of steel comparable in quality to the steel produced by the big American mills.
(C) American quotas on imported goods have often induced other countries to impose similar quotas on American goods.
(D) Domestic “mini-mills” consistently produce better grades of steel than do the big American mills.
(E) Domestic “mini-mills” produce low-volume, specialized types of steels that are not produced by the big American steel mills.
sunny91
I have an issue with option E- Because the author does not say mini-mills can ONLY produce that kind of produce, this leaves us to evaluate the consideration that can mini-mills produce the production that big-mills produce? If yes, then we are not able to weaken the argument. Also, option E makes sense if we say"Those small domestic mills will take more business from the big American steel mills." However, we have the part "than would have been taken by the foreign steel mills in the absence of quotas." So, how does this make sense in line of thinking option E as the answer. Also, why is B wrong.
Let's review the author's reasoning:

  • In the absence of the quotas, foreign steel mills (FSM) will take SOME business from big American steel mills (BASM).
  • With the quotas, small domestic mills (SDM) will take an even greater amount of business from big American steel mills.
  • Therefore, the imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will NOT help the big American steel mills and will help “mini-mills” flourish in the United States.

So for whatever reason, the author believes that the quotas will allow smaller domestic mills to take a bigger chunk of business from the big American mills.

Quote:
(B) Foreign steel mills have long produced grades of steel comparable in quality to the steel produced by the big American mills.
We are trying to evaluate the claim made in the last sentence. In order to do so, we need to compare the amount of business taken by FSM without quotas to the amount of business taken by SDM with quotas. Choice (B) simply tells us why foreign steel mills have been able to take some of the business from big American mills (they make a similar product). But what will happen when the quotas are introduced? Will SDM take an even greater chunk of business from BASM? Choice (B) does not help us answer that question or evaluate the author's claim. Eliminate (B).

Quote:
(E) Domestic “mini-mills” produce low-volume, specialized types of steels that are not produced by the big American steel mills.
Yes, it is true that SDM might also make products similar to those produced by BASM. But remember that we are looking for an answer that "would cast the most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence above." It doesn't have to PROVE that the claim is not correct, but it has to cast serious doubt.

Going back to the author's reasoning... currently, FSM take some business from BASM. If quotas are introduced, maybe it will be better for BASM since they won't have to deal with the competition from FSM. However, according to the author, if the quotas are introduced, BASM will face even GREATER competition from SDM. So, great, we've dealt with the foreign competition but now we are worse off than before because we have new and greater competition from SDM.

But what if SDM and BASM make different products? In that case, it is LESS LIKELY that the SDM will complete with BASM once the quotas are introduced. Sure, choice (E) doesn't say that SDM ONLY produces "low-volume, specialized types of steels," but it certainly implies that SDM focuses on a different type of product. Even though this doesn't DISPROVE the author's claim, it casts some serious doubt, and we would want more information to evaluate the claim.

All of the other choices can be eliminated, and (E) is the best answer.

I hope that helps!
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Hi VeritasPrepKarishma GMATNinja

Please can you advise why Choice A is incorrect?

Thanks
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 19 May 2022, 09:28
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Quote:
The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big American steel mills. In fact, the quotas will help “mini-mills” flourish in the United States. Those small domestic mills will take more business from the big Americal steel mills than would have been taken by the foreign steel mills in the absence of quotas.

Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence above?

(A) Quality rather than price is a major factor in determining the type of steel to be used for a particular application.
(B) Foreign steel mills have long produced grades of steel comparable in quality to the steel produced by the big American mills.
(C) American quotas on imported goods have often induced other countries to impose similar quotas on American goods.
(D) Domestic “mini-mills” consistently produce better grades of steel than do the big American mills.
(E) Domestic “mini-mills” produce low-volume, specialized types of steels that are not produced by the big American steel mills.
sunny91
I have an issue with option E- Because the author does not say mini-mills can ONLY produce that kind of produce, this leaves us to evaluate the consideration that can mini-mills produce the production that big-mills produce? If yes, then we are not able to weaken the argument. Also, option E makes sense if we say"Those small domestic mills will take more business from the big American steel mills." However, we have the part "than would have been taken by the foreign steel mills in the absence of quotas." So, how does this make sense in line of thinking option E as the answer. Also, why is B wrong.
Let's review the author's reasoning:

  • In the absence of the quotas, foreign steel mills (FSM) will take SOME business from big American steel mills (BASM).
  • With the quotas, small domestic mills (SDM) will take an even greater amount of business from big American steel mills.
  • Therefore, the imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will NOT help the big American steel mills and will help “mini-mills” flourish in the United States.

So for whatever reason, the author believes that the quotas will allow smaller domestic mills to take a bigger chunk of business from the big American mills.

Quote:
(B) Foreign steel mills have long produced grades of steel comparable in quality to the steel produced by the big American mills.
We are trying to evaluate the claim made in the last sentence. In order to do so, we need to compare the amount of business taken by FSM without quotas to the amount of business taken by SDM with quotas. Choice (B) simply tells us why foreign steel mills have been able to take some of the business from big American mills (they make a similar product). But what will happen when the quotas are introduced? Will SDM take an even greater chunk of business from BASM? Choice (B) does not help us answer that question or evaluate the author's claim. Eliminate (B).

Quote:
(E) Domestic “mini-mills” produce low-volume, specialized types of steels that are not produced by the big American steel mills.
Yes, it is true that SDM might also make products similar to those produced by BASM. But remember that we are looking for an answer that "would cast the most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence above." It doesn't have to PROVE that the claim is not correct, but it has to cast serious doubt.

Going back to the author's reasoning... currently, FSM take some business from BASM. If quotas are introduced, maybe it will be better for BASM since they won't have to deal with the competition from FSM. However, according to the author, if the quotas are introduced, BASM will face even GREATER competition from SDM. So, great, we've dealt with the foreign competition but now we are worse off than before because we have new and greater competition from SDM.

But what if SDM and BASM make different products? In that case, it is LESS LIKELY that the SDM will complete with BASM once the quotas are introduced. Sure, choice (E) doesn't say that SDM ONLY produces "low-volume, specialized types of steels," but it certainly implies that SDM focuses on a different type of product. Even though this doesn't DISPROVE the author's claim, it casts some serious doubt, and we would want more information to evaluate the claim.

All of the other choices can be eliminated, and (E) is the best answer.

I hope that helps!


Hi VeritasPrepKarishma GMATNinja

Please can you advise why Choice A is incorrect?

Thanks
Show more
The author is comparing two scenarios.

  • Scenario 1: There are no quotas, and foreign steel mills take business from big American steel mills.
  • Scenario 2: There are quotas, and mini-mills take business from big American steel mills.

According to the author, the amount of business that big American steel mills would lose to mini-mills in Scenario 2 is bigger than the amount they'd lose to foreign mills in Scenario 1. In other words, the big American steel mills would lose business either way. But the amount they'd lose to mini-mills (in the presence of quotas) would be greater than the amount they'd lose to foreign mills (in the absence of quotas).

Let's now consider (A):

Quote:
Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence above?

(A) Quality rather than price is a major factor in determining the type of steel to be used for a particular application.
Show more
The correct answer should cast doubt on the claim that big American steel mills would lose more business to mini-mills (in the presence of quotas) than to foreign mills (in the absence of quotas). How does (A) affect this conclusion?

In fact, it's hard to see how (A) would affect the argument at all. Notice the passage doesn't address the idea of steel quality or steel price. Do mini-mills produce cheaper or more expensive steel than big mills? Which mills produce the highest quality steel? Based on the passage, we're unable to answer any of these questions. So we really can't say how (A) affects the argument.

Since (A) doesn't cast doubt on the author's claim, it's incorrect.

I hope that helps!
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 08 Jun 2022, 19:21
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I think ezhilkumarank does a great job with this question, but I want to make a clarification.

I would argue that the assumption here is not so much that the mini-mines will be able to produce the same quantity of coal as the larger mines, but rather that they even produce the same kind of coal. If this assumption were stated and became a premise, it would be quite clear that quota will have no impact on the relationship between the mini-mills and the large U.S. mills because they aren't even producing the same thing.

Hope this helps!
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Why not BKimball? I think the former is quite important
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 08 Jun 2022, 19:48
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Official Explanation:

If, as choice E asserts, large and small mills produce different types of steels, increasing sales by small mills
need not lead to decreasing sales by large one. Thus, choice E casts a serious doubt on the claim and is the
best answer.
Choice A does not present enough information about the relative quality of steel from foreign and domestic mills
to cast any doubt on the claim. Similarly, choice B does not provide enough information about small American
mills, nor does choice C provide enough information about the likely consequences of quotas imposed by
foreign countries to cast doubt on the claim. Choice D tends to support the claim, since better steel should sell
better than poorest steel.
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 23 Jul 2022, 09:33
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GMATNinja

Though E does cast a doubt that SDM would not to able to take BASM business bcz the products are different but we still don't know SDM compared to FSM. The claim is comparison btw SDM & FSM. How E can impact the comparison?
Please help me to understand.

Thanks in advance!
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 26 Jul 2022, 14:22
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Sneha2021
GMATNinja

Though E does cast a doubt that SDM would not to able to take BASM business bcz the products are different but we still don't know SDM compared to FSM. The claim is comparison btw SDM & FSM. How E can impact the comparison?
Please help me to understand.

Thanks in advance!
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Let's say someone argues that "matcha ice cream will become more popular than chocolate ice cream." This argument compares the popularity of two kinds of ice cream. :-P

I could weaken this argument by saying that "everyone hates matcha ice cream." Sure, I haven't mentioned chocolate ice cream at all. And it's possible that everyone hates chocolate ice cream even more than they hate matcha ice cream! Still, on balance, the fact that everyone hates matcha ice cream makes it less likely that matcha ice cream will become more popular than chocolate ice cream. I haven't proven that the original argument is garbage, but I have weakened it a bit.

(E) does that same thing to the argument in this question. It doesn't offer a comparison, but on balance it does provide a reason to doubt that SDM will take more business from BASM than FSM would take. That's why (E) is the correct answer.

I hope that helps!
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 21 Apr 2023, 23:24
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The argument states that the imposition of quotas will transfer business from the foreign mills to "mini-mills", at the cost of the big American mills. The underlying assumption is that the products sold by the foreign mills and the American mills are interchangeable with those of domestic mills.

E says otherwise.
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 21 May 2023, 01:10
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The option that would cast the most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence is option (E): Domestic "mini-mills" produce low-volume, specialized types of steels that are not produced by the big American steel mills.

The claim in the last sentence states that the quotas on imported steel will result in "mini-mills" flourishing in the United States and taking more business from the big American steel mills than would have been taken by foreign steel mills. However, if it is true that domestic "mini-mills" produce low-volume, specialized types of steels that are not produced by the big American steel mills, it weakens the argument that they would directly compete for the same business.

Option (E) weakens the claim by suggesting that the products of the domestic "mini-mills" serve a different market segment or have specialized applications that are not directly in competition with the products of the big American steel mills. This implies that the flourishing of "mini-mills" due to quotas may not have a significant negative impact on the big American steel mills as they target different customer needs.
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 07 Jun 2024, 05:58
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big American steel mills. In fact, the quotas will help “mini-mills” flourish in the United States. Those small domestic mills will take more business from the big American steel mills than would have been taken by the foreign steel mills in the absence of quotas.

Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence above?

(A) Quality rather than price is a major factor in determining the type of steel to be used for a particular application.

(B) Foreign steel mills have long produced grades of steel comparable in quality to the steel produced by the big American mills.

(C) American quotas on imported goods have often induced other countries to impose similar quotas on American goods.

(D) Domestic “mini-mills” consistently produce better grades of steel than do the big American mills.

(E) Domestic “mini-mills” produce low-volume, specialized types of steels that are not produced by the big American steel mills.
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When there are no import restrictions, ­foreign mills take away some business from big American mills. 

The quotas will help mini mills flourish. (opinion of the author)

Last sentence (again, opinion of the author): Those small domestic mills will take more business from the big American steel mills than would have been taken by the foreign steel mills in the absence of quotas.

We need to weaken this. For that, we need to cast doubt on: mini mills will take away more of the big mill's business than foreign mills do. 

(A) Quality rather than price is a major factor in determining the type of steel to be used for a particular application.

Irrelevant. 

(B) Foreign steel mills have long produced grades of steel comparable in quality to the steel produced by the big American mills.

But why will mini mills not take away more business of the big mills? It doesn't address.

(C) American quotas on imported goods have often induced other countries to impose similar quotas on American goods.

Irrelevant

(D) Domestic “mini-mills” consistently produce better grades of steel than do the big American mills.

This could be a reason why mini mills will take away business from big mills (kind of strengthener) but we need an explanation on why they will take away more business than foreign mills. In any case, it is certainly not a weakener.


(E) Domestic “mini-mills” produce low-volume, specialized types of steels that are not produced by the big American steel mills.

This option tells us that the steel produced by the two is different. Mini mills make different types of steel than big mills. So then mini mills wil not take away big mills' business. Hence it weakens the last sentence. 

Answer (E)

Check out the video on weaken questions here: https://youtu.be/EhZ8FKkfy0k
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 27 Sep 2024, 09:21
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Hi GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo bb mikemcgarry KarishmaB
I rejected C) but had a tough time rejecting it. I do not understand why is it irrelevant (as per other answers here) My chain of thought was - if other countries are reducing American imports -> it would be tougher for American large and small businesses to export their steel eventually leading to less business for both. It can be argued that what if all their business was in US itself but I still see this as a weakener. Any inputs?
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 27 Sep 2024, 09:28
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manrasingh
Hi GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo bb mikemcgarry KarishmaB
I rejected C) but had a tough time rejecting it. I do not understand why is it irrelevant (as per other answers here) My chain of thought was - if other countries are reducing American imports -> it would be tougher for American large and small businesses to export their steel eventually leading to less business for both. It can be argued that what if all their business was in US itself but I still see this as a weakener. Any inputs?
Show more

There are two ways to rule out C:

1. EASY / FAST
To make it work, you have to be assuming too much. we do not know anything about exports. This is not a business plan. This is a two sentence argument.

The rule on the GMAT CR is - You are allowed to make one step inference or assumption. If an Answer choice requires you to start having multiple steps, it’s incorrect.

Everything you say could absolutely be true or it may not be. We’re not told anything about exports. We do not know if the big mills export anything today. it’s way outside of our argument.

Option C should be easy to roll out using the scope of the argument.

2. LOGICAL / HARD:

If you think about it logically, Import quotas are designed to protect the domestic market. If a US company is being squeezed in the domestic market, because their prices are higher than a foreign product, then quotes can help shield those businesses by making the importer’s cheap products priced similarly or higher.

If This situation exists and a US company has higher prices domestically, it would also mean that it would have higher prices internationally where it would have to ship products, likely even higher price than domestically. Therefore, we can pretty safely conclude/assume that at this point there are few or no exports because they are uncompetitive. Because there are no exports this choice makes no difference and no impact because The US steel making companies have already lost international market and now they are trying to survive in the domestic market. Notice that I’m not bringing in any external knowledge or information here and not making any assumptions except a pretty logical conclusion that they likely lost global export market.

The second option is more logical and more reliable than the first one but it took me literally minutes to wrap my mind around it whereas the first one took a few seconds to realize that this is outside of the scope.


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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 20 Dec 2024, 03:25
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Hi GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo bb mikemcgarry KarishmaB
I rejected C) but had a tough time rejecting it. I do not understand why is it irrelevant (as per other answers here) My chain of thought was - if other countries are reducing American imports -> it would be tougher for American large and small businesses to export their steel eventually leading to less business for both. It can be argued that what if all their business was in US itself but I still see this as a weakener. Any inputs?

There are two ways to rule out C:

1. EASY / FAST
To make it work, you have to be assuming too much. we do not know anything about exports. This is not a business plan. This is a two sentence argument.

The rule on the GMAT CR is - You are allowed to make one step inference or assumption. If an Answer choice requires you to start having multiple steps, it’s incorrect.

Everything you say could absolutely be true or it may not be. We’re not told anything about exports. We do not know if the big mills export anything today. it’s way outside of our argument.

Option C should be easy to roll out using the scope of the argument.

2. LOGICAL / HARD:

If you think about it logically, Import quotas are designed to protect the domestic market. If a US company is being squeezed in the domestic market, because their prices are higher than a foreign product, then quotes can help shield those businesses by making the importer’s cheap products priced similarly or higher.

If This situation exists and a US company has higher prices domestically, it would also mean that it would have higher prices internationally where it would have to ship products, likely even higher price than domestically. Therefore, we can pretty safely conclude/assume that at this point there are few or no exports because they are uncompetitive. Because there are no exports this choice makes no difference and no impact because The US steel making companies have already lost international market and now they are trying to survive in the domestic market. Notice that I’m not bringing in any external knowledge or information here and not making any assumptions except a pretty logical conclusion that they likely lost global export market.

The second option is more logical and more reliable than the first one but it took me literally minutes to wrap my mind around it whereas the first one took a few seconds to realize that this is outside of the scope.


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Wow, that was a pretty good explanation. I was trying to overthink this option
Other countries -> import restriction -> low exports -> business won't flourish
But haven't you assumed that US companies have higher prices domestically??
I understood your logic of import quotas acting as a shield, but why have you assumed it must be due to higher prices?
It might be as well for policies like Make in India ( to promote domestic products more)

Also, I have a doubt regarding your easy/ Fast method for E
only mini-mills have specialised steel -> Biggies don't -> so mini-mills will eat up Biggies' share more than foreign companies could (aren't we assuming here that demand for specialised steel is more and both Biggies and foreign companies aren't making specialised steel??) I mean aren't we going an extra step to infer this?

Maybe I am going an extra mile thinking this.. But I am going to stick to Marty's advice on thinking sophistically and analysing deeply :)

bb MartyMurray
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peehu24
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 24 Dec 2024, 13:42
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naish
I was confused by the last sentence - "Those small domestic mills will take more business from the
big Americal steel mills than would have been taken by the foreign steel mills in the absence of quotas." It made me think that D could be the correct option. Any comments?
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Hi, firstly the question doesn't talk about the quality of steel in any context thus we should not be bothered by that but even if we do evaluate this option we will find that it strengthens the statements by highlighting that if small domestic mills produced better qualify of steel, they will eventually take more business from the bigger players
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The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big 21 Oct 2025, 10:41
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If (E) is true, the mini-mills and the big mills are not competitors. They operate in completely different markets.
Big Mills produce a certain type of steel (presumably high-volume, standard-grade).
Mini-Mills produce a different, specialized type of steel.

Customers who buy from the big mills cannot just switch to the mini-mills, because the mini-mills don't make the product they need. Therefore, the mini-mills flourishing will not cause them to "take business" from the big mills. This casts the most serious doubt possible on the claim.


reply2spg
The imposition of quotas limiting imported steel will not help the big American steel mills. In fact, the quotas will help “mini-mills” flourish in the United States. Those small domestic mills will take more business from the big American steel mills than would have been taken by the foreign steel mills in the absence of quotas.

Which of the following, if true, would cast the most serious doubt on the claim made in the last sentence above?

(A) Quality rather than price is a major factor in determining the type of steel to be used for a particular application.

(B) Foreign steel mills have long produced grades of steel comparable in quality to the steel produced by the big American mills.

(C) American quotas on imported goods have often induced other countries to impose similar quotas on American goods.

(D) Domestic “mini-mills” consistently produce better grades of steel than do the big American mills.

(E) Domestic “mini-mills” produce low-volume, specialized types of steels that are not produced by the big American steel mills.
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