Assignment #1 (50 points) Complete the assignment and upload your answers to Canvas. The assignment is worth 50 points and
it is due February 27th by midnight. Submit a Word document with a numbered list of all your answer. Make sure the number matches the question you are answering.
Part 1: U.S. TRADE AND IMPACT (30 points in total) TRADE PARTNERS. Look at the current Top U.S. Trade Partners tables (click on the following link to go to the URL address with the publication: Trading partners link). Take a moment to understand what information is in each table and look at the countries listed in each one. Answer the following questions (2 points each):
1. What is the year to date total trade amount for 2021 for the U.S. with all countries (give the total dollar figure).
2. Explain in one sentence what does the total trade number mean? How it is calculated? 3. Which countries are the top two export markets for U.S. products? In your answer include the
name of the countries, the dollar amount of exports for each and the percentage of total exports that go to each.
4. Why do you think these two countries in question #3 are the top export markets for the U.S.? 5. What percentage of our exports go to France? How does it compare to Canada? 6. From which countries do almost 50% of our imports come from? Explain your answer 7. How many dollars in products did we import from China last year (2021)? 8. What does the year-to-date surplus table represent? 9. Take a look at the list of countries listed in the surplus table. Do you see a difference with
most of the countries listed in the other tables? Can you explain this difference? 10. What does the year-to-date- deficit table represent? What does it mean for Chinas number to
be -$355.3 billion dollars?
For the following three questions look at the charts in the next page. They show annual trade data for the United States from 1992 to today.
https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/highlights/top/top2112yr.html
U.S. EXPORTS HISTORICAL DATA U.S. IMPORTS HISTORICAL DATA
U.S. TRADE BALANCE HISTORICAL DATA
11. What is the trend look like for Exports and Imports over time? 12. What do you think explains the two sharp declines in the export/import charts (in 2008 and
2020? 13. What is the trade balance chart showing? Explain what trend you see.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an important source of money into the country. An important component of FDI is the number of employment it generates. Go to the following website (https://www.selectusa.gov/FDI-global-market/states-territories) to take a look at the number of U.S. jobs directly supported by FDI in every State.
14. Which are the top three States in terms of jobs supported by FDI? 15. How many jobs are supported by FDI in Texas?
https://www.selectusa.gov/FDI-global-market/states-territories
Part 2: CARBON FOOTPRINT (10 points) The first part of the assignment relates to module 4 (sustainability and natural resources). Visit the following website and answer the questions to find out what is your “carbon footprint”. This exercise is a good way of knowing how much of a carbon footprint you have and hopefully gets you thinking about what things you can do to do your share in saving energy and saving the planet! Go to this link to begin:
http://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/
Answer the following questions: (2 points each)
16. What is your current carbon footprint score? 17. What is your new total after your planned actions? 18. How do you compare to the U.S. average carbon footprint? 19. Look at your report and see how many trees would be saved based on your planned actions? 20. What would your planned actions mean in term of dollar savings to you?
Part 3: CONCLUSION (10 points)
21. What did you learn from this assignment? Summarize in your own words in one to two paragraphs (maximum) what is your take away from this assignment.
http://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/
Part 1: U.S. TRADE AND IMPACT (30 points in total)
Part 2: CARBON FOOTPRINT (10 points)
Part 3: CONCLUSION (10 points)
