The US-Japan Auto Dispute

The auto dispute between Japan and the United States and its resolution provides the first real indication of Japan’s growing role in the maintenance of the international trading system. Although the outcome of the crisis placed additional restrictions on flow of goods, it will be argued that it is necessary to go beyond mere symptomatic reading of the events. In the midst of the auto dispute, the US Congress passed concurrent resolutions declaring it to be strategic national industry, considering the fact that one in twelve manufacturing jobs was related to the auto industry and because the automotive sector provided a ‘market for 24 per cent of the US steel output, 17 per cent of aluminium, 54 per cent of iron, and 59 per cent of synthetic rubber’. The US-Japan auto dispute, in its initial phase, proceeded along two interrelated but somewhat separate tracks. The first was Japanese investment in the United States and second, import restrictions on Japanese cars.