More Crap From DOLT 45

[dales]

U.S. President Donald Trump is visiting Japan right now, and as he is wont to do, took a moment to drum up some foolish statement about the auto industry, which he objectively does not understand. Speaking to a group of business leaders in Tokyo, Trump reportedly said: “Try building your cars in the United States instead of shipping them over. That’s not too much to ask. Is that rude to ask?”

[Crackpot]

He heard otherwise but figured it was on the fake news.

[Darren]

I'm not sure who builds vs who ships or who builds some and ships others. I wonder how many in the media are manning the Trump microscope? It got him elected in 2016. The media will do it again in 2020 at this rate. Apparently the media hasn't learned the free publicity energized Trump's base.

[Crackpot]

Japanese companies have about the same domestic parts and labor as the "domestics"

[ex-khobar Andy]

GM sells about 1000 cars a year in Japan. Maybe he should be telling them to open a factory there. They have only recently begun assembling some Cadillac models with right hand drive. Actually I did a quick Duck Duck Go search on that and there were certainly plans to do that in 2015, but the implication of what I was reading was that the Cadillacs for sale in the UK were conversions, so I'm not sure.

Edited to correct a typo.

[Crackpot]

They care more about getting thier cars into China than anywhere else

[dales]

PRC has a thing for the BUICK brand.

[Crackpot]

That's because GM has been pushing it hard.

[Sue U]

I wonder how it would go over if a foreign leader came to Washington and told Trump, "Why don't you have your [pick any] industry stop hiring U.S. workers and start making its products in my country instead? That's not too much to ask."

What a fucking idiot.

[Crackpot]

If he had complained about US access to the Japanese market he may have had a defensible point.

[Sue U]

Maybe, CP, but in the big picture Japan is really small potatoes and already a well-developed market. As you noted, China -- and (I would think) India -- are the markets of the future.

[Crackpot]

But it is an important point free trade has to work both ways otherwise you have one market syphoning off the wrath of another