SAT Question da438257: Command Of Evidence answer and explanation

Choice B is the best answer because it describes data from the graph that best support the student's assertion that initial efforts at trade liberalization in China were shaped by firms having limited capital (assets available for use) and that this situation resolved during the 2000s. The text explains that an approach to trade liberalization involves engaging in processing imports, one type of which doesn't require payment to a trade partner (processing with assembly) and one type of which requires upfront payment to a trade partner for raw materials (processing with inputs). The graph, which presents China's imports for ordinary imports and both types of processing imports in the years 2000, 2003, and 2006, shows that while processing imports with assembly rose from about 250 hundred million dollars in 2000 to about 750 hundred million dollars in 2006, processing imports with inputs rose much more sharply, increasing from approximately 650 hundred million dollars in 2000 to about 2,300 hundred million dollars in 2006. Because processing with inputs requires firms to pay for materials (expending capital) and processing with assembly doesn't, the sharper rise in processing imports with inputs suggests that Chinese firms' assets—and thus their ability to engage in that type of processing imports—were relatively limited in (and before) 2000 and then substantially increased from 2000 to 2006. In other words, the data suggest that the situation of having limited capital resolved during the 2000s.