AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/22 Report--

Recently, US President Donald Trump said that imported cars and imported parts may harm the national security of the United States. The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association expressed "deep disappointment", echoing Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda's comments on Tuesday.

"I am frustrated to hear that our investment and employment contributions in the US are not welcome," Mr Toyoda said. " "as chairman, I am deeply saddened by this decision."

In the United States last year, Toyota sold a total of 2.12 million vehicles, and auto trade accounted for 75% of Japan's trade surplus with the United States, which also means that Japanese cars can sweep away $43.5 billion in profits in the United States each year. The US government will certainly not tolerate the continuous decline of American cars at home. Japanese car companies accounted for 39 per cent of the US new car sales market in 2017, while US car companies accounted for less than 1 per cent of the domestic market, according to the data. According to Zeng BBC, imported cars account for only 6% of the car market in Japan, with German brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen accounting for more than 70%. By comparison, American cars have a market share of only 1.5% in Japan.

Japanese car companies have taken advantage of NAFTA's rules of origin to base their production in Mexico with low labor costs and export their products to the United States and Canada. Data show that Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Mazda produced a total of 1.3907 million cars in Mexico in 2016, most of which were sold to the United States. About half of the passenger cars sold in the United States are imported. At present, the US market only charges 2.5 per cent tariff on imported cars, which is an important reason for the strong demand for imported cars in the US market. Now Trump wants to impose a 20 per cent tariff on Japanese cars. This is undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for Japanese car companies.

Japanese companies have 28 factories, 49 R & D centers and 39 distribution logistics centers in 28 states in the United States, and Japanese auto companies have invested nearly $51 billion in the United States, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association. And provide 49000 direct jobs.

Toyota has planned to invest $10 billion in the US parts supply chain in 2017, adding to its quota of $3 billion just two months ago for five years. And these measures will not stop the White House from cracking down on the Japanese auto industry, which has a huge trade deficit. The industry also expressed concern about Trump's comments, with the American Automobile Manufacturers Alliance saying on Friday that rising tariffs would put 700000 Americans out of work.

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