Ford says Sayonara to Japan...

[Lowell]

... and Indonesia too. From the BBC: "In a statement, Ford spokesman Neal McCarthy said: "Japan is the most closed, developed auto economy in the world, with all imported brands accounting for less than 6% of Japan's annual new car market."

The 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement in its current form would not improve Ford's ability to compete there, he added.

'Another defeat'
Analyst Simon Littlewood says Ford "never made sense" in Japan
"It's another step in the global defeat of the US car industry,"

"It never really made sense for them to be in either Japan or Indonesia, selling only around 5 to 6,000 vehicles in each of those markets - that's a tiny proportion of what you need to sell to have any kind of scale."

"With Indonesia you could argue that it is a substantial market with 300 million people but the problem is that the Indonesian government has a policy of insisting on local assembly," said Mr Littlewood."

http://www.bbc.com/news/35406463

Split verdict from my POV. An advanced country like Japan some serious arm twisting but I agree with a developing country like Indonesia. Want to sell them here? Then build them here.

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

It boggles the mind that the Japanese market is so closed and ours is so open.

While I hate to admit it, Trump does have a point concerning our abysmal trade deals. I've been against the TPP for a long time; if in fact it would not even pry open the Japanese market one can assume there is very little in the deal that would work well for us. Perhaps for the bottom line of some U.S. corporations as they ship more jobs overseas and import more goods, but little or nothing for the average American.

[ABetterDetroit]

Japan's auto market has always been closed to American cars or made very difficult to compete. It would be fascinating if this issue had been promptly dealt with 40 years ago the way it should have been what Detroit would look like today.

[Ltdave]

from what i recall, Japan has seriously notorious tariffs and when the US tried to apply the same logic to Japanese imports, Japan cried foul and shut off all imports from the states...

after the unfair trade agreement was put back into place to placate the Japanese, they then did some massive manipulation of their currency to make the imports even cheaper than in their home markets..

there has NEVER been an equitable trade agreement between the US and Japan especially when it comes to autos...

if the 93rd through about the 99th congress had done more to stop the one-sided trade, things would have been hugely different for the US auto industry. not necessarily better but different. the influx of fuel efficient sub-compacts drove the US to copy the imports which has been a good thing...

JMHO

[Gistok]

I have to agree with DetroiterOnTheWestCoast... Trump is far from an ideal candidate... but his complaining about American trade agreements will resonate very well if he becomes the Republican nominee.... I can see a lot of Reagan Democrats coming out to support him, if their jobs have been eliminated or outsourced to foreign competition. And any complaints he might bring up against NAFTA being passed on Hilary Clinton's husbands watch may come back to haunt her.

I personally think that the choices for the 2016 elections are either nitwits, dimwits or halfwits... but Trump may just resonate with a lot of folks on both sides of the aisle, since our leaders have been so dismal at trade agreements.

[Johnnny5]

I have to agree with DetroiterOnTheWestCoast... Trump is far from an ideal candidate... but his complaining about American trade agreements will resonate very well if he becomes the Republican nominee.... I can see a lot of Reagan Democrats coming out to support him, if their jobs have been eliminated or outsourced to foreign competition. And any complaints he might bring up against NAFTA being passed on Hilary Clinton's husbands watch may come back to haunt her.

I agree it should help him is he ends up being the nominee, but in the unlikely scenario where he ends up facing Sanders it won't be of much help. Sanders opposition to NAFTA and most of the other free trade agreements is well documented as he has voted against all of them.