To protect certain fledgling industries, the government of country Z banned imports of the types of products those industries were starting to make. As a direct result, the cost of those products to the buyers, several export-dependent industries in Z, went up, sharply limiting the ability of those industries to compete effectively in their export markets.

Which of the following can be most properly inferred from the passage about the products whose importation was banned?

• AThose products had been cheaper to import than they were to make within country Z's fledgling industries.  
• BThose products were the ones that country Z was hoping to export in its turn, once the fledgling industries matured.  
• CThose products used to be imported from just those countries to which country Z's exports went.  
• DThose products had become more and more expensive to import, which resulted in a foreign trade deficit just before the ban.  
• EThose products used to be imported in very small quantities, but they were essential to country Z's economy.