Imports in Japan: Closed Markets

macroeconomics,imports, Japan, closed markets

Effects of European VERs on Japanese autos

This paper has analyzed implications of the U.K, French and German voluntary export restraints (VERs) negotiated with Japanese carmakers. The paper shows how VERs do not protect domestic industries and probably end up costing consumers more. First, most EC countries followed suit after the British negotiation with Japan in 1976 (the domino effect). Second, the VERs did not arrest import penetration by third countries. When Japanese imports were restricted, the French simply bought Italian and German cars. Third, the Japanese upgraded the quality of cars sold on the French market between 1981 and 1983 (the VER was not strictly binding in France until 1984 and in Germany until 1985). Fourth, between 1979 and 1986, French, German, and Japanese producers supplied an increasingly similar product mix on the French car market, whereas the Italians created a distinctly different type of product. Fifth, in 1984 and 1985 the quota raised auto prices in France about 9%, costing French consumers about 320 million francs and saving only about 300 jobs.Access to Markets,Markets and Market Access,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT

THE PROBLEM OF REGIONAL "HOLLOWING OUT" IN JAPAN : LESSONS FOR REGIONAL INDUSTRIAL POLICY

This paper considers the problems of "hollowing out" using a Case Study of Japan's machinery sector. In doing so, it explores the roots of the present crisis by focusing upon the role played by Japan's large transnational corporations. This is important because these corporations are the "central actors" within the Japanese economy and they control a significant proportion of Japanese manufacturing. It is their strategic decisions - those that determine the level and location of investment, employment and output - which ultimately shape the development path for Japanese industry (see Cowling and Sugden, 1994, 1998). In recent years, Japan’s large transnationals have become engaged in the process of elite globalisation, pursuing their own interests at the expense of domestic Japanese industry. This is a fundamental insight that is crucial for designing appropriate policy responses to arrest Japan's current industrial decline. It is argued that the lessons from Japan's experience might guide policymakers in other regions, such as Wisconsin, who are concerned with future industrial development, the effects of globalisation and problems of "hollowing out".Machinery sector ; strategic-decision making ; strategic failure ; industrial policy.

A single market for Europe?

Europe 1992 ; European Economic Community

Asian trade barriers against primary and processed commodities

Many developing countries are being encouraged to shift toward increased processing and exports of domestically produced natural resource based products now exported in primary form. But in many major markets, the structure of tariffs and nontariff barriers militate against such efforts. Zero or low tariffs are generally applied to industrial countries'imports of primary (unprocessed) commodities; duties increase, or"escalate", as the level of processing or fabrication increases. Tariff escalation produces a trade bias against processed goods. In the past, such trade barrier escalation has been attributed chiefly to industrial countries. The authors examined the structure of restrictions in Asian countries and found that most Asian countries'tariffs incorporated more escalation than do tariffs in industrial countries. Apparently tariff escalation is often reinforced by nontariff barriers on processed goods, although supporting data for this finding are less firm. This issue should be viewed as a North-South issue, contend the authors. A bias against imports of processed goods is built into trade barrier escalation among Asian countries and should be addressed in regional initiatives to liberalize intra-Asian trade barriers. The authors make three recommendations for dealing with escalation issues in multilateral negotiations: Japan, and to a lesser extent, the Republic of Korea are the keys to successful negotiations on these issues, as they have a far greater import bias against processed commodities than do all other countries with which the authors compare them. That is, Japanese and Korean trade barriers incorporate far more escalation than do trade barriers in other countries studied. Disproportionately high cuts in trade barriers for unprocessed commodities are not the solution, as they would increase effective protection for processed goodss. Any approach to trade liberalization should deal with both tariffs and nontariff barriers, to ensure that a reduction in one type of restriction is not offset by a further tightening in the other. Several Asian countries apply both types of restrictions to commodity imports.TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Environmental Economics&Policies,Transport and Trade Logistics,Common Carriers Industry,Trade Policy

Budget rules and monetary union in Europe

European Monetary System (Organization) ; Europe ; Fiscal policy ; Foreign exchange - Law and legislation

A World of Regions: America, Europe, and East Asia

Recent events in world politics are creating a substantial break in the history of international politics comparable in this century only to the years 1917-22 and 1947-53. With specific reference to Germany and Europe as well as to Japan and East Asia, this essay argues that these changes in world politics tend to reinforce a new political regionalism that expresses different norms, which, in the foreseeable future, are unlikely to be assimilated fully into one normative global order

EMU and the ECB

Monetary unions - European Union countries ; European Central Bank ; European Economic Community