What you’ll learn to do: explain why companies and nations engage in global trade

Consider the humble banana. Even if you are not a big fan of this yellow fruit, you have probably seen them in the grocery store or in a book or magazine. It is fair to say that if you walked through your city with a banana and asked people to identify it, it is unlikely you would encounter someone who had no idea what it was. Now, find a picture of a banana tree and conduct the same experiment. How many people would recognize it as a banana tree? Probably many, but not all. Why is that? In the United States bananas are grown in Hawaii, and not everyone has been to Hawaii. In fact, most of the bananas in the world are grown in Brazil. Well, if we as Americans love bananas and do not live in Hawaii and can’t get to Brazil on a regular basis, then, without global trade, we do not have bananas for our cereal in the morning, for a snack during the day—or even worse, no banana splits at the local ice cream parlor. Consider our humble yellow fruit as you read through this next section on the reasons companies and nations engage in global trade.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

The learning activities for this section include:

• Video: Chinese Manufacturing for American Products
• Video: Why Do Nations Trade?
• Reading: The Balance of Trade
• Self Check: Reasons for Global Trade

Take time to review and reflect on each of these activities in order to improve your performance on the assessment for this section.