JAPAN
o In 2012, the Big Three sold only 13,637 cars in the Japanese market – less in a year than Japanese companies sold in a day in the United States.
o Import penetration in the Japanese market is approximately 6%, the worst of any major OECD auto markets by far.
o Japan’s auto sector produces 10 million cars for a 5 million car domestic market, depending on protection at home and exploitation abroad for its survival. Export pressure will increase as the population ages and shrinks.
o Hyundai-Kia, Korea’s top automaker, pulled out of Japan in 2009 because of struggling sales. European auto companies oppose an FTA with Japan because they cannot sell cars there.
o Japan is a sanctuary market – guaranteed market share allows Japanese companies to establish economies of scale and drive down costs, which is important to building a formidable export platform. o The tariff for autos is zero; Japan relies on deep, shifting,
impenetrable non-tariff barriers to keep out foreign autos (e.g., currency manipulation and discriminatory taxes, standards, entry procedures, distribution structures, and zoning requirements). Repeated negotiations have failed to remove these barriers.
o Japan has a long history of intervening in currency markets to weaken the yen to boost Japanese exports and dampen import competitiveness in Japan. The yen has depreciated 8% this year; 20% since last fall. U.S. free trade agreements have never before addressed currency.
o Not a single foreign auto company has production in Japan because of the closed investment atmosphere
The Poitiers effect:
I loved when he said he would tell Ford, ‘Congratulations on your new plant in Mexico, now we’re going to charge you 35% tariff on every car and truck you bring into the U.S.’
I know he couldn’t unilaterally do this
Ha....simple...just do to the imported ford vehicles what the French did to stop the flood of Japanese made VCR units.....
They dedicated a special import office in the French village of Poitiers to handle all imports of VCR units....
Trucks were backed up in rural France around Poitiers for miles...and the Japanese caved in
And there is this jem (use against the Japanese)
)
July 6, 1985|By R.C. Longworth, Chicago Tribune
``We exported some textiles, put them on a ship. When they got there, the customs point at that port had been closed, and the ship had to go to another port 1,000 miles away.`` ``When the ship got to the other port,`` Hughes said, ``it found a tiny, one-man customs point, and that one officer was under orders to inspect every yard of textiles that came through him.
``Well, something like that can extend your delivery a couple of months. By that time, the customer is fed up, and he cancels the order. It only takes a few of these to ruin a market for you.`