Question

Identify whether the given items are examples of imports, exports, or neither. Assume the United States is considered the domestic country.

Glen lives in the United States and purchases a video game produced in Japan.
A. export
B.neither
C. import

Veronica lives in Tennessee and buys an orange grown in Florida.
A. export
B.neither
C. import
A Chinese consumer purchases a television produced in China.
A. export
B.neither
C. import
A farmer in Iowa sells corn to a food processing plant in China.
A. export
B.neither
C. import
ExxonMobil drills for oil in the United States and sells this oil to refineries in Brazil and Mexico.
A. export
B.neither
C. import

Answer 1

1) C. import

Glen is a US citizen buying imported goods (video game). Japan is a foreign country that produced the video game. The market where the product is bought is the US (domestic market). So, when the domestic consumer buys a foreign consumer good in the domestic market, it is an example of import.

2) B. neither

In the US, buying a good in a US state that is produced in a different state is not considered an import. In the US, import is defined at federal level. Therefore, this is not an example of import, nor export. Import would only be considered if the good originated from a non-US country.

3) B. neither

This event is completely based in the country that is not the domestic country, so this is not an example of import, nor export. Although the domestic country in our perspective is not Japan, here a product is bought in the same country where it is produced.

4) A. export

This is a typical export example, where the US (via the state of Iowa) exports its goods (corn) to a business in China. From the perspective of our domestic country (the US), corn is exported to a foreign country, and consumed there afterward. NOTE - it wouldn't be considered as export to transfer good from one US state to another

5) A. export

This is also an example of export, where a natural resource produced (drilled) in the US is sold to a foreign country (Brazil and Mexico). The definition of export is all about this - producing a good in our domestic country and selling it to a foreign one.