He’s going to have to run this by Putin
I, as a consumer in the US would like to not have to pay so much money for car parts. You know what I mean? Mr Orange goo, I have a car, it needs parts from time to time and I would like to just purchase the parts and not pay a tariff. Does that work?
Let me explain where I’m coming from. Like imagine I have $8 dollars and I see a part at a store that comes out to a total of 8 dollars. I would like to pay $8 dollars and not $9 dollars. Because 9 is higher than 8. See where I’m going?
Tariff us back!
Japan is too lacking in both spine and (I think) allies to do that. Unlike Europe to them independence from the US (and generally doing things) has always been an afterthought. They’re quite frankly screwed here.
It’s because they rely on US military support.
for what?
As a deterrence against North Korea and also China. NK sees Japan as an enemy because Japan was a colonizer of the peninsula and Japan is allied with South Korea. NK has kidnapped Japanese citizens in the 70’s and 80’s and they have fired rockets over Japan several times in the last 20 years so Japan sees NK as a real threat. And China has a territorial dispute with Japan and Japan is an ally of Taiwan.
Japan doesn’t have nukes, aircraft carriers or even bombers. While China has all of that and North Korea is building a nuclear arsenal. Japan’s own laws prevent them from building a full military force. They have what they call a Defense Force. Those laws were created when they were occupied by the US.
So they rely on the US for nuclear deterrence and support in case they do get attacked.
Fuck it. Just ban the import of American made cars.
The thought of Japan buying American cars is hilarious. American car companies only care about making oversized trucks and SUVs now. Even in America, if you buy a sedan you are most likely getting an import. In the most popular 25 sedan models in America according Kelly Blue Book, the top 5 are all Japanese and there are only 3 from American brands.
There’s an Interesting history of American cars in Japan. Ford had an incredible failure here, and had to leave with egg on their face, which is incredible because the mandatory vehicle inspections every couple of years make it the easiest country on the planet for dealerships to make money.
They tax vehicles by engine displacement though, so all those massive engines would be super unpopular, and as I understand it, they also shipped left hand drive cars here, which is absolutely unpractical.
One wonders why they didn’t just ship UK market fords here, they have the steering wheel on the right side, and the smaller size would be more likely to appeal to drivers with more narrow streets.
It is common to see chargers and mustang on the road in Tokyo though, but they’re all grey market imports.
Grey market imports
I believe a lot of them are actually from US service members who bring their cars over when they get their posting changed. AFAIK that’s fully legal, but it’s specifically for individual owners.
There are none (worth speaking about)
Well… their threat is more start selling off their US treasurey bonds that are worth more more than a trillion dollars and could potentially tank the value of the dollar itself if sold off on mass…
Please do it. Our people need to learn to be less selfish and stupid.
Japan is in for a rough ride.
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And now another country can learn the US is no longer a reliable trade partner and can start planning their future without America.
Americans have no idea how bad this is going to hurt in a few years. If they thought life was tough now, yikes…
Please. I want to buy a new car soon and it’s almost certainly going to be Japanese.
I too enjoy cars that don’t fall apart at 100,000 miles
Guys, not cool! You don’t do this part publicly. You have each company petition privately.
If Trump likes them, they get an exemption and get to raise prices anyway while going “Hoo boy, those tariffs, huh? Real shame. But what can you do?”
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