📚 Learning Guide
Currency Exchange and Trade Balance
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A Canadian company wants to import goods from Mexico. As the Canadian dollar appreciates against the Mexican peso, how will this affect the company's import costs and the trade balance between Canada and Mexico?

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Learning Path

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Choose the Best Answer

A

The import costs will decrease, leading to an increase in Canadian imports from Mexico, improving the trade balance.

B

The import costs will increase, causing the company to import less, worsening the trade balance.

C

The import costs will remain the same, but the trade balance will improve due to increased exports from Canada.

D

The appreciation of the Canadian dollar has no effect on import costs or the trade balance.

Understanding the Answer

Let's break down why this is correct

Answer

When the Canadian dollar becomes stronger compared to the Mexican peso, it means that each Canadian dollar can buy more pesos. For the Canadian company importing goods from Mexico, this results in lower import costs because they need to spend fewer Canadian dollars to purchase the same amount of goods priced in pesos. For example, if a product costs 1,000 pesos and the exchange rate changes so that 1 Canadian dollar equals 20 pesos instead of 15, the company now only needs to spend 50 Canadian dollars instead of 67. As a result, this situation can lead to an increase in imports from Mexico because they are cheaper, which might negatively affect Canada’s trade balance by increasing the trade deficit if exports do not rise as much. Overall, a stronger Canadian dollar can encourage more imports and potentially shift the trade balance between the two countries.

Detailed Explanation

When the Canadian dollar gets stronger, it means you can buy more with each dollar. Other options are incorrect because This answer suggests that stronger currency makes imports more expensive; This option thinks that import costs stay the same.

Key Concepts

Currency Appreciation
Trade Balance
Import Costs
Topic

Currency Exchange and Trade Balance

Difficulty

medium level question

Cognitive Level

understand

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