Unprecedented industrial growth in the country of Remo has

BhaveshGMAT

The question is a case of conditional conclusion.
The structure of the conclusion is this: If A happens, B will happen.

How do we weaken it? By saying that if A happens, B may or may not happen. By saying that if A happens, it is not necessary that B will happen.
Can we weaken it by saying that A may not happen? No. The conclusion is not arguing whether A will happen or won't happen. It is arguing on what will happen if A happens.

Take an example:
I: If it continues raining for another couple of hours, the city will flood.
If you want to weaken my stance, what can you say? Even if it continues raining for another couple of hours, the city may not flood because the drainage system was cleaned and upgraded a few weeks ago.
Is there any logic in discussing whether it will continue raining for another couple of hours? No. I am not arguing for/against it at all. My point is what will happen if it does continue raining.

Now, look at the original conclusion:
If the plan is implemented, it will create significant opportunities for foreign exporters to market pollution-control systems.

Now, do we need to argue whether the plan will be implemented or not? No.
We need to argue about what will happen if the plan IS implemented. Hence option (C) is irrelevant.

(A) certainly has merit. The conclusion says that the implementation of the plan will create significant opportunities for foreign exporters. But what if domestic companies start manufacturing the pollution control systems? Then the foreign exporters may not get many opportunities.
(A) tells us that plan will provide tax incentives for local business to develop and manufacture pollution-control systems. This makes it more likely that local businesses will develop and manufacture these systems.
Hence, it does make us question the conclusion. That is enough to weaken the conclusion.

Answer (A)

Check out another question with a conditional conclusion here: https://www.gmatclub.com/forum/veritas-prep-resource-links-no-longer-available-399979.html#/2012/1 ... onclusion/
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A

The clean growth plan will provide tax incentives for local business to develop and manufacture pollution-control systems
- so as plan is implemented, more and more local businesses will manufacture pollution-control systems, eliminating opportunities for foreign exporters.

If tax incentives started reaching hundreds of millions of dollars for big corporations in Remo, then naturally somebody in town would work day and night to develope a system to fill that niche.

I go for D.

I don’t see to which extent A weakens the argument. On the contrary, the tax incentives will foster companies to produce the systems, in a competitive climate. As a result, export opportunities of high quality-cheap systems will rise.

D. If the regulations are less strict, then Remo will start to produce systems that will not fit the regulations of other countries, thus making export more difficult.

Common "out of scope" trap. Besides, what's strict to one person can be Draconian to another. Guess it's a matter of perspective.

interestingly, how come I encountered this question in entirely new gmat prep CAT 5 from the EP2??? is gmac doing its job? lol


as for the answer choices I am not convinced by A as C is equally valid and does weaken the conclusion.

A: if the favourable conditions are created in some industry this does not imply that local business will take use of it and launch businesses. in my country the conditions are very favourable as there is no competition and regulations are loose however the businesses are too lazy and/or incompetent to gain this advantage. hence foreign companies still can enter.

As for C: the lobbyists either can be successful or would not reach their goal. same level of uncertainty here as in A. if they are successful and regulations are not implemented then foreign guys lose.

Important Takeaway - Whenever we have questions regarding a plan that is proposed, we need to focus only on AC that talk about what happens once/if the plan is implemented.

Common wrong AC traps -
- AC that talks about whether the plan will be implemented or not
- AC that talks about present situation or the present plan
- AC that says the similar plan was implemented in the past and XYZ happened
- AC that says the same plan failed/work in another country/city

Conclusion :- the plan, if implemented, will create significant opportunities for foreign exporters to market pollution-control systems.
Weakener will say :- the plan, if implemented, will NOT create significant opportunities for foreign exporters to market pollution-control systems.

Option A says :- The clean growth plan will provide tax incentives for local business to develop and manufacture pollution-control systems. Then the local business will start developing and marketing pollution-control systems. And for sure , few companies in Remo will produce pollution-control systems. So the plan will NOT create significant opportunities for foreign exporters to market pollution-control systems.

Option B is clearly out of scope. How the foreign exporters maintain the pollution control systems is clearly out of scope.

Option C says :- Industrial lobbyists sponsored by local business in Remo are trying to prevent the implementation of the government regulations.
The conclusion says that " the plan if implemented ". So even though the industrial lobbyists are trying to prevent the implementation , if the plan gets implemented the conclusion may follow and so option C is not a weakener.

Option D says :- The regulations that Remo plans to implement are much less strict than those in neighboring nations.
Still the regulation will require pollution control systems and since no local company in Remo currently produce pollution control systems ,the plan, if implemented, will create significant opportunities for foreign exporters to market pollution-control systems.
So the conclusion follows and the option D is not an weakener.

Option E is totally irrelevant. It just says that pollution had many bad effects on the country.
Option A is the correct answer.

Please give me KUDO s if you liked my explanation.

The pollution control systems in the factories are not adequate enough for complying with regulations. Domestic companies are not manufacturing such systems. On the basis of this, the author concludes that foreign companies will be the ones having a good amount of buyers for their systems.

It seems fairly logical for the author to come to such a conclusion. But, may be, there is still some information that we dont know of at present, which could shake this conclusion.
I am trying to imagine such a missing information and I could only of this :

What if the regulation also states that before the regulation comes into force, sufficient time will be given for technology knowledge transfer between foreign and domestic companies, or in fact, domestic companies will be given ample time and money in the form of aid to setup production plants for such system. May be then the foreign companies wont be having good amount of buyers.

Looking at options :

1) This option is quite close to what I could think of. It may be a possible correct choice as per me.

2) This option tells us what will foreign companies will do after they have sold their pollution control systems. So this choice has actually already accepted the conclusion. What foreign companies will do later after selling the systems is of no use as a weakener. The systems have sold already, now whats the point of fighting against what has already happened. Incorrect choice.

3) The people are trying best to make the regulation not come into force. But this is not relevant because the author is talking about what might happen if the regulations are implemented. The "if" condition is already taken care of by the author. So it doesn't matter what the people are doing in real and at present, or thinking if the regulation will be implemented or not. We have to focus on what happens if they get implemented. Incorrect choice.

4) Again , like in option 3 , this option is making us divert our attention. It is making us to focus on which country's regulation is stronger. How does that matter ? We have to focus on what might happen after the regulation in Remo gets implemented. Whether it is less strong or more strong compared to that in neighboring nations is not relevant. Therefore, this choice is incorrect.

5) This option tells us what pollution in Remo has done. It only hints and favors the notion that the regulation should come into force. But does it help us in inferring what will happen after it gets implemented ?
Will the foreign companies benefit or not ? We get no idea. Incorrect choice.

Possible correct choice A

5)

Can any expert throw more light on why the OA is A and not C? As per option A, even if tax incentives are provided, what if the domestic manufactures are not competent and lack capacity. On the other hand, C at least weakens a little bit by stating how the plan may not get implemented.

Does the key word here is '...the plan, if implemented...' as stated in stimulus? If yes, how do we approach such questions?

The replies in the thread do not make a lot of sense to me.

Request your comment VeritasKarishma GMATNinja

Thanks for the detailed post VeritasKarishma.

The conditional reasoning part is amply clear. Hence, C is not our option.

But, to my second question for A to be correct answer option, are not we assuming that even if tax incentives are provided, domestic manufacturers will be able to provide the required equipment matching their foreign exporters?

For instance, say a Country X has given tax incentives for pharmaceutical companies to manufacture COVID vaccine, does it mean they will be able to manufacture and provide vaccine, and not import the same?

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