Many environmentalists, and some economists, say that free trade encourages industry to relocate to countries with ineffective or poorly enforced antipollution laws, mostly in the developing world, and that, in order to maintain competitiveness, rich nations have joined this downward slide toward more lax attitudes about pollution.

A. that, in order to maintain competitiveness, rich nations have joined this downward slide toward more lax attitudes about pollution

B. that, for maintaining competitiveness, rich nations join in this downward slide toward more lax attitudes about pollution

C. that rich nations join this downward slide toward more lax attitudes about pollution because of wanting to maintain competitiveness

D. that in rich nations, joining this downward slide toward more lax attitudes about pollution is a result of wanting to maintain competition

E. that wanting to maintain competition is making rich nations join in this downward slide toward an attitude about pollution that is more lax

What is wrong in B and why A is correct > I presume B is correct "free trade encourages" and "rich nations join" are parallel
This GMAT prep question

A is Correct because of proper Tense Sequence.


B is supperficial Parallelisim one ---Say can be Parallel to encourage Join.

Whereas in A the Sequence of events is correctly laid out ---The Laws Encourages and to Maintain competition the countries HAVE joined.

Just to add I think ARE JOINING is better than Join in the context Presented.

MGMAT Tutors please comment.

here are a couple of problems with choice b:
- 'for maintaining competitiveness' is bad idiomatic usage: it's an incorrect way to express intent or purpose. (the construction in choice a is surprisingly wordy - in order to could be replaced with just to, with no loss of meaning - and might not make it onto the real exam.)
- 'rich nations join in this downward slide': fatal change in meaning. this wording implies that the rich nations are colluding with each other, metaphorically holding hands, deciding together to become more lax about pollution. (choice a expresses the correct meaning, which is that the slide is happening and that rich nations are individually joining it.)
- the simple present tense join implies that there is some sort of timeless truth about the statement being made. that's the wrong meaning: the sentence is meant to say that the rich nations have begun to do this as a result of current trends. if you don't understand the difference, consider the following analogous examples:
private universities have admitted more females than males --> meaning: this is an ongoing or cumulative trend, continuing into the present from some designated starting point
private universities admit more females than males --> meaning: this is a fundamental truth about the way private universities operate

are joining would make sense, but it would also fundamentally alter the meaning of the original.
have joined (the original) means that the joining has already happened (although its effects continue and are relevant to the present-day situation). are joining, on the other hand, would imply that rich nations are just starting to join up.

remember that you generally shouldn't change the meaning of the original sentence at all, unless the original is total nonsense.