To help American auto dealers shouldn’t the Congress impose tariffs on others?
Posted in: auto dealers | March 10th, 2010
Years ago I stated we should put a bigger tariff on oil to keep it balanced, then the Asian market crash and $10 a barrel oil, instead of $20. So wouldn’t it help our auto industry it they put a $10,000 tariff on all imported cars, this way they could use that money to pay the national debt, it would cut down on sales and people would probably buy here. granted it might make a difference on someone buying a $35,000 Sentra, but not much when politician buys a Rolls Royce.
Many "foreign" models actually have more US-created content than, say, some Ford models. That just doesn’t work as well as it might. I agree there should be a stiff luxury tax on cars over $60,000 or so.
March 10th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
No. Americans have voted with their dollars. Many Americans prefer foreign cars since they believe that they are of better quality and more fuel efficient.
Perhaps, the American Auto Industry should have taken a signal from the market back in the 1970’s, but they didn’t learn then and they are not learning now.
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March 10th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Many "foreign" models actually have more US-created content than, say, some Ford models. That just doesn’t work as well as it might. I agree there should be a stiff luxury tax on cars over $60,000 or so.
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March 10th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
How much tariff are you willing for other countries to impose on the US. What products should the US be tariffed on. Should europe charge a tariff on all GM, Ford and Chrysler imports? How about California wine? or Microsoft programs? Can Canada charge tariffs on US fruits and vegetables? Clothes and linens?
It works both ways you know.
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March 10th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Just check out the latest Consumer Reports Reliability Ratings. The US companies are ALL at the bottom of the list. The US Auto industry has only itself tp blame for the loss of sales to foreign competitors. If they make a better product I would consider buying American. Any "bailout" funds that go to them need to be connected to a requirement to improve quality of product. All the high tariffs would do would let them off the hook for building sh*tty cars…
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March 10th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
If the Government is going to bail out the Auto Industry to protect our jobs then it should be in every industry here in America loosing jobs! Also we should bring back the parts manufacturing back to America and now!. A lot of the parts and motors and items are manufactured off shore ( CHINA) and this needs to be stopped now. This whole Global Market crap is totally bad for American workers and America. I have written about this for years now and nobody listened before, or would do anything about it because of greed by our politicians in Washington and American consumers that do not know what this kind of stuff does to their own jobs. Demand American made and buy American. The job you save may be your own!
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work in economic development
March 10th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
No, don’t give them one cent. Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler have been sucking for years now. When was the last time they actually had a good year. They make crappy cheap plastic cars and expect people to buy them out ot patriotism. Don’t subsidize the failing car industry. Let them handle it. Instead of laying off people at the bottom, they need to start cuttiing some of the high overpriced salaries from the top since their obviously not doing their jobs! If you want people to buy their product they should start making a superior product.
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March 10th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Tariffs alone wouldn’t work. The Japanese "Economic Miracle" serves as a much better model. But don’t expect American companies to bow to the U.S. government as the Japanese did after WWII.
Ideally, we should only provide protections to corporations who achieve world-class quality.
Also, we should demand the same environmental, legal, human rights, minimum wage and working-condition standards of any component of any product sold in our market.
Many Asian nations taxed our cars over 100% for decades and some still do. There never was a level playing field.
Japan spent billions after the war (yes, much was from the U.S. govt to help rebuild) to totally revamp everything about their strongest industries. In the late seventies and through the eighties, there were regular interviews with Japanese businessmen asking how they became so rich.
All credited wartime quality of America’s arsenal for their defeat. They marveled that every plane flew as expected, straight out of the factory. Every jeep, every radio, every gun, every ship, every tank…all were reliable.
If they were to regain respect in the world, it would require the achievement of an industrial base second to none.
Someone in Japan recruited W. Edward Deming at over $100,000/yr to explain how we did it. Deming had worked under W. Shewhart during WWII and, together, they had pioneered quality control techniques and with the backing of the U.S. government, manufacturers did as Shewhart and Deming said. No questions asked.
After WWII, GM retained Deming for a few years at about $100,000 and just ignored his admonitions and advice. Quality quickly declined.
The Japanese found him indispensable – probably why they paid him so well.
While GM, Ford, Chrysler, Studebaker, etc, were resting on their laurels, permitting factory and equipment to decline; and while the U.S. Govt was spending billions on new weaponry for the cold war, Japan Inc. spent almost exclusively on perfecting an export-based economy. They knew that the critical factor was value for the price. And value meant quality.
Executives from Nissan admitted that, when they first introduce their cars to the U.S. market (under the name "Datsun" in case they failed), their salesmen almost refused to sell a car to young moms, elderly people or anyone who couldn’t fix the thing. In other words, they knew as well as anyone that their stuff still sucked. Their confidence changed by the mid to late sixties.
Then came the oil crunch & the rest is history.
Since the eighties, American quality has come very close to equaling that of Japan’s, though not in cameras and optics. We have spent insane amounts of money on defense (which, until recently, I was always for). Japan and Korea have had no such expenses to concern themselves with.
Nonetheless, we let them get away with exorbitant tariffs under the GATT and now the WTO.
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