Kaptur Calls for Global Trade Reform as Ford Announces Plan to Terminate Operations in Japan

Reiterates Call on Washington to Reject New Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-9), who co-chairs the House Auto Caucus and is a leader in efforts to force foreign markets open to U.S.-made goods, issued the following statement after Ford Motor Company announced that it will terminate all operations in Japan by the end of 2016 as a result of hostile market conditions in the closed Japanese market.

"Ford's decision to no longer attempt to build or sell ‎vehicles in Japan is most discouraging. This announcement shows that even an excellent firm like Ford, which has been able to establish successful operations in nations around the world, faces unfair and anti-competitive barriers in Japan. These are the same Japanese closed‎ market practices, what is known as a keiretsu or closed business network, that make Japan the persistent trade outlier in the global marketplace.

“For decades, Japan has been allowed to have it both ways on trade. Today they have privileged access to the U.S. marketplace while still being allowed to make it almost impossible for any non-Japanese automakers to sell there. As a result, nearly 95 percent of all cars sold in Japan are made by Japanese companies. This is practically the definition of a closed market. That gives an unfair and un-earned advantage to Japanese companies, resulting in lost sales and lost jobs for American firms. If a fine company like Ford cannot maintain a viable operation in Japan, let it be a clanging cymbal‎ for‎ a reordering of global trade.

“The current global trade regime has operated to the detriment of the United States for the last three decades. The scarred landscapes of auto towns from Flint to Lorain tell us how uneven the playing field is for global auto competition. Congress should defeat TPP, which Ford has long opposed, and which will further reward Japan's pernicious closed practices. Our nation needs an aggressive coordinated effort to promote real free trade among free nations. We can leverage the strength of our economy to open closed markets, growing demand for U.S.-made goods around the world and creating jobs and opportunity here at home.”

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