Many large U.S. firms invest abroad instead of exporting. Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read James Gerber’s (2017) Chapter 4 and Ed. Crooks’ article, America: Riveting Prospects (Links to an external site.), and respond to the following components.

• Compare and contrast foreign trade and foreign investment.
• Evaluate why many U.S. companies do not want to participate in exporting and rather build their plants and factories in foreign countries to produce there.
• Assess the advantages and disadvantages of this type of foreign investment (i.e., building their plants and factories and producing their products in foreign countries).
• Analyze how foreign investment and production can contribute the U.S. economy when its transactions are not counted into GDP.
• Explain whether you are in favor of foreign trade (exporting) or foreign investment (production outside the United States), and why.

The Foreign Trade Versus Foreign Investment assignment

• Must be three to four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.)’s APA Style (Links to an external site.)
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted

For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).

• Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose 
• For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
• Must use at least three scholarly, peer-reviewed, and/or credible sources.
  • The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.

You are invited to carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your week 2 assignment.