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Originally Posted by Jesda  There is truth to what Sandy is saying. Toyota does lobby the US government as much as or more than the Big Three, and Japan's policies on trade are not as friendly as ours. The question then is less about what is, and more about how to deal with it. |
The article Sandy brought to our attention has a lot of truth to it. As one who lived in Japan for two and a half years in the late '60s and early '70s and was involved in Far East trade for many years, I can say that their has never been a level playing field when it came to that nation's economic recovery from WW2. As the countries recovered and others began to develop we continued to give favorable access to our US market while allowing those countries to descriminate against US products through high tariffs and distribution impediments to competition in these countries. Example American citrus products (Sunkist citrus and Florida) were made to be luxury products ((one Sunkist grapefruit in Japan cost the equivalent of $5.00 when thay were selling on the East Coast of the US for 49 cents; this was promoted by the Japanese government as protecting the domestic Japanese citrus industry (which was almost non-existant). These type of outrageous tariff and distribution practices kept the Japanese people from enjoying a higher standard of living while keeping penetration of Japanese markets by American consumer products to a much lower level than would have been the case with less exclusionary trade poicies. Our government allowed this to take place in the name of "Free Trade."
However, it is interesting to note that with all the protection of domestic markets and favorable access to international markets that Japan has enjoyed its' economy has still been in the Tank for over ten years!