US-Japan Automotive Trade in the Reagan and Obama Administration: Explaining the Rise and Fall of Protectionism
GTA Analytical Paper No.1 presents a structured comparison of policy responses by the United States to competition with Japan in the automotive sector in two difference administrations. It will examine one case in which the United States chose to impose protectionist measures and another in which it did not, in order to consider the effects of economic downturns on both the demand and supply of protection. After reviewing the facts of the two cases, this paper will evaluate four possible explanations that are variously legal, political and economic in nature. While these explanations are not mutually exclusive, and each may offer some part of the answer, the evidence suggests that the most persuasive case is based on long-term changes in the structure of the US automotive industry.
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