Word: important
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...August speech, Malaysia's Mahathir noted that 84% of his nation's exports to Japan consisted of oil, wood, tin and other raw materials. Said he: "We cannot and will not remain merely hewers of wood and drawers of water." Japanese businessmen and farmers press for protection from imports just as hard as their counterparts in the U.S. Although Japan's tariffs are generally low, critics point out that the country has long maintained a maze of product standards, inspection procedures and testing requirements that effectively exclude many foreign goods. The government is sensitive to this charge, and since...
...roots of Japan's import phobia run deeper than its regulations. The Japanese are picky and often do not trust the quality of American products, much less Asian imports. Says Eric Hayden, an economist and a director of the Bank of America in Tokyo: "The Japanese are not going to take South Korean machine tools or Malaysian cars or Indonesian airplanes. Japan doesn't import that kind of stuff. The Japanese produce it, and better than any of these countries...
...step in and deal with specific problems." He displayed a reassuring grasp of details: when American officials cited the dialysis machine as an example of products being kept out of the Japanese market, Nakasone surprised those present by knowing all about the device and the obstacles to its import...
Several European countries produce or import an array of deadly compounds, among them methyl isocyanate (MIC). In Britain, a division of Ciba-Geigy Chemicals, Ltd., is the only company permitted to deal with the substance. Located two miles from Grimsby, a town of 92,000, the firm imports and stores the chemical in 45-gal. stainless-steel drums. No more than 18,000 gal. is kept in stock at one time. But even with these precautions, Grimsby villagers gathered in protest after they found out that the lethal compound was being held in their midst. They were led by Anthony...
...away. Recalls one: "We were so cocky that we just went ahead and let all these American engineers take a look at nearly whatever they wanted to in our light-truck plants." Now the Japanese are pushing to improve sales through low prices. Though they face a 25% import duty imposed in 1980, they are unfettered by the quotas that restrict the number of cars they can export to the U.S. A Mazda Sundowner B-2000 can be bought for $5,795. The lowest-cost American-made pickup is the Chevrolet...