To protect certain fledgling industries, the government of country Z banned imports of the types of products those industries were starting to make. As a direct result, the cost of those products to the buyers, several export-dependent industries in Z, went up, sharply limiting the ability of those industries to compete effectively in their export markets.

Which of the following can be most properly inferred from the passage about the products whose importation was banned?


(A) Those products had been cheaper to import than they were to make within country Z's fledgling industries.

Since it is banned to import these products, buyers in export-dependent industries have to buy these products within the country Z. We know from the passage that these buyers are paying more for the products. Therefore, we can infer that the products made in country Z is more expensive than the imports which buyers used to purchase for a lower price.

(B) Those products were ones that country Z was hoping to export in its turn, once the fledgling industries matured.

We know Z has been relied on imports on these products before. But we do not know whether country Z is going to export these products or not in the future.

(C) Those products used to be imported from just those countries to which country Z's exports went.

This is a minor detail of the export : where the export came from or went. This is the detail we do not know, or in other words, cannot be inferred from the passage.

(D) Those products had become more and more expensive to import, which resulted in a foreign trade deficit just before the ban.

We do not know whether these products will become more expensive, nor it can be inferred. In addition, we can infer that the import should be cheap, but D is saying that it is expensive.

(E) Those products used to be imported in very small quantities, but they were essential to country Z's economy.

We do not know if it was essential to the economy nor inferred this from the passage.