12.6 Students analyze issues of international trade and explain how the U.S. economy affects, and is affected by, economic forces beyond its borders:

• Section 1. Identify the gains in consumption and production efficiency from trade, with emphasis on the main products and changing geographic patterns of twentieth-century trade among countries in the Western Hemisphere.

• Section 2. Compare the reasons for and the effects of trade restrictions during the Great Depression compared with the present-day arguments among labor, business, and political leaders over the effects of free trade on the economic and social interests of various groups of Americans.

• Section 3. Understand the changing role of international political borders and territorial sovereignty in a global economy.

• Section 4. Explain foreign exchange, the manner in which exchange rates are determined, and the effects of the dollar’s gaining (or losing) value relative to other currencies.