Trade Memo
2/7/24, 7:09 PM Trade Memo Trade Memo Start Assignment Due Wednesday by 11:59pm Points 4 File Types doc, docx, rtf, txt, and pdf Submitting a file upload First Research Memo Please choose one and only one of these three questions to answer: A. Identify a business that plays an important role producing one of your country’s major exports. Put that export in the context of total exports. Based on research, explain what this business does, and why. Why is that business located in our country? https://guides.lib.uw.edu/bothell/busdatabases/companies (https://guides.lib.uw.edu/bothell/busdatabases/companies) (In recent years, this question has been the most interesting and productive one for most students, and it carries over easily to the rest of the research memo assignments.) B. You have your country’s tariff data. Based on research, explain why these tariffs exist, in terms of the different interests within your country that are helped or hurt by them, and the political process that produced these tariffs. (You should be working from your WTO tariff profile here.) (Additional caution: I have seeing drafts that assume any “pro-business” political party will support tariffs because tariffs help local businesses. The problem with this logic is that not all businesses worry about imports. Think about all the local businesses you deal with: plumbers, barbers, yardwork, car repair, contractors, dentists etc. None of them has to worry about foreign competition. This is because what they sell is a service that can’t be imported. Barbers in India are paid maybe 5% of the wages of U.S. barbers, but that’s irrelevant here because you can’t import haircuts. So my barber should be a free-trader, because when he spends his income he benefits from cheap imported goods. Next, think about large businesses in this area: Microsoft, Boeing, Adobe. They are successful exporters, globallycompetitive firms with no need for tariff protection; they are also anxious about their access to foreign markets, and will therefore oppose anything that might spark tariff wars. Plus cheap imported consumer goods means their workers can live cheaper and maybe they can pay them less. Amazon is a special case because it’s basically a merchant and clearly benefits from free trade. Large point: when it comes to trade policy there is no obvious single “business interest” because different businesses do very different things.) C. You have data on your country’s trade. Based on research, explain the specific pattern of imports and exports that your country shows. In other words, what specific facts about your county https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1714667/assignments/8771172 1/4 2/7/24, 7:09 PM Trade Memo cause this pattern? Respond in three pages, with tight rules: 1. The first page contains whatever data or information is important for your explanation. Tables, graphs, charts, lists: whatever works for you! Basically if you want to fact-dump, do all your factdumping here. All those sources should be listed in the bibliography on the third page. 2. The second page contains your answer to your chosen question. This should be your writing, your analysis. It should not be a fact-dump. You are welcome to refer to and quote other people’s analysis, but I am looking for your synthesis of the material you are drawing on. This should draw on sourced research about your country – that is, we’re not just looking for a possible theoretical explanation, but an explanation linked to researched, well-sourced facts. All sources drawn on should be listed in the bibliography on the third page and you need sentence-level citations whenever you are using specific facts or ideas. See the Trinidad memo examples linked below. The first sentence on this page should identify the question and summarize your explanation. The rest of your writing should support that first sentence. 3. The third page contains references. All data should be sourced. If you draw on other people’s analysis and interpretation (which is fine!) you should source that too. The reference list should be in a bibliographic format (https://guides.lib.uw.edu/bothell/citation) . Which format is up to you, but you want full references. Be sure that specific facts are credited in the text on the first two pages, and be especially sure that any words borrowed from another source, even if you only paraphrase, are fully credited at the point in the text you use them, with quotation marks to clearly distinguish your writing from anyone else’s writing. Unsourced assignments are an automatic zero, and substantial under-sourcing will hurt your grade. I’m not going to give you rules about margins and fonts. Figure out what looks reasonable. FAQ What can/should I source? — Nothing is forbidden! Rather, it is up to you to figure out what is useful for the claims you want to make. — Diversify your sources. Don’t trust any single source, or category or sources. Always look for multiple standpoints, especially for analysis. For the basic trade and tariff data, we can trust the World Bank and WTO. But when you start to explain stuff, you want to be alert to some range of possible explanations. If you find yourself becoming heavily dependent on one source for analysis, look for other views. https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1714667/assignments/8771172 2/4 2/7/24, 7:09 PM Trade Memo The purposes of this assignment are to (a) start applying our theory to actual cases (b) get used to the discipline of writing upper-level research: always being clear about our sources, and about what value we are adding with our own writing. You don’t have to be right to get full credit! I have posted a couple of examples using the country of Trinidad and Tobago in the “Files” section of the course website. Trinidad Memo Question A example (https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1714667/files/111459378/download) Trinidad Memo Question B example (https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1714667/files/111459921/download) These are rather quickly-written samples of the kind of work you can do — you don’t have to imitate them! But I hope I’ve shown that you want to use the text to digest and think about the data, not just to provide information. I found it useful when I wrote these to write my analysis longer, and then cut back to one page, getting rid of stuff I didn’t need. Here’s an example: Trinidad’s “Pitch Lake” is the largest natural asphalt lake in the world. And it actually is related to trade, because it is mined and some of the asphalt is exported. So it’s a fun natural resource fact and it’s kind of trade-related, but it didn’t make the cut in my answer to Question B because it’s only minimally relevant to the analysis I end up making. In general, resist the urge to just write down lots of facts on page 2: instead, use that space to think! Before you submit this assignment, please check yourself: I. Does the first sentence on your second page directly address the question you have chosen? Does the rest of that page support that explanation (as opposed to going off on tangents or just presenting information)? II. Are you fully sourced? Do all phrases or sentences that are copied from somewhere else have quotation marks around them and a source directly attached? Do facts and points of analysis you have gotten from somewhere else have a source attached? III. Do you have a clear and complete reference list on your third page? IV. On page 2, are you clear on who is doing what? For example, when we say: “Trinidad exports ____” we usually mean “firms in Trinidad sold ____ to foreign buyers” https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1714667/assignments/8771172 3/4 2/7/24, 7:09 PM Trade Memo or when we say “Trinidad imports _____” we usually mean “buyers in Trinidad bought _____ from foreign producers” So it’s perfectly OK shorthand to say “Trinidad imports” or “Trinidad exports,” as long as we are clear in our minds that we are adding up the activities of lots of different people. But there is no sensible way to say “Trinidad wants” or “Trinidad desires” or “Trinidad needs” or “Trinidad focuses.” There is no single national mind! Nations are full of different people doing different things for different reasons, sometimes at cross-purposes. At least in this course, there is no such thing as a national will, a national emotion, a national intention. Nations do not think, feel, plan, regret, strive, or desire. National governments may do things, but always ask yourself why a government does something. Don’t assume that the government of Trinidad automatically represents the will of the people of Trinidad – even the will of the majority. As with all assignments, I am delighted to look at drafts in advance: just e-mail them to me as attached documents. https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1714667/assignments/8771172 4/4
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