Final answer:
France has an absolute advantage in producing both sweaters and wine as it requires less labor compared to Tunisia. Gains from trade between Germany and France depend on the difference in production times for cars and wine. Germany will export cars if France takes more than 400 hours to produce them, indicating Germany's productivity superiority.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the context of international trade, two important concepts are absolute advantage and comparative advantage. In the provided examples, we see differences in productivity between two countries, France and Tunisia, which form the basis for potential gains from trade. Absolute advantage refers to the ability of a country to produce a good using fewer resources than another country. Conversely, comparative advantage considers the opportunity cost of producing goods, and a country has a comparative advantage if it has a lower opportunity cost in producing a good compared to its trade partners.
In the first example, France has an absolute advantage in the production of both sweaters and wine, because it takes only one worker to produce each item, while in Tunisia it takes two and three workers, respectively. For the second question regarding the French and German workers' production times for cars and cases of wine, gains from trade will be possible if the number of hours (XX) that the French worker takes to produce a car is different from the number of hours the German worker takes. Specifically, Germany will export cars and import wine if the French worker takes more than 400 hours to produce a car because it would mean that Germany is more productive in car manufacturing. If the French worker takes less than 3 hours to produce a case of wine, France would export wine and import cars.