On 2012-05-24, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Yep. I don't know the details, but I was told that the import duties
and tax laws of late 1960's were structured to make it cheaper to
build a product in Japan, than in the USA.

Not exactly. Production in Japan was initially due to low labor
costs, true, but that was only part of the story. The practice of
"dumping" by the Japanese on America was strictly Japanese business
sense. As early as the 50s, Japanese housewives were marching in
protest at the high prices charged Japanese consumers for TVs. This
while dumping same said TVs at astonishingly low prices in the US to
successfully gut the market. In short, this practice of dumping,
supported by exorbitant prices in Japan and Japanese govt support
drove the practice to new heights. Motorcycles were another
benefactor. Later cars. Most of this changed when many US companies,
initially led by Harely-Davidson, finally demanded protection from
dumping. Later, it became cheaper to build in the US --hence US
Japanese car companies-- than face high import tariffs. Also, the now
prosperous Japanese consumer demanded higer wages to buy all this
stuff.

Also, Japan's import duties made it prohibitively expensive to
import consumer products into Japan.

That's still a practice, but less so than in the past. Specially with
food, Japan no longer able to feed her own ever growing population.
Another approach was to partner up with a Japanese company to get
around import duties, which our company did in the 90s.

nb

--
vi --the heart of evil!
Support labeling GMOs
http://www.labelgmos.org/