> I wonder if Germany was more aggressive with tariffs to protect automakers from competition. It's somewhat the opposite actually. Germany taxes imported cars

> I wonder if Germany was more aggressive with tariffs to protect automakers from competition. It's somewhat the opposite actually. Germany taxes imported cars, but at least it still allows them. At the behest of automakers and unions, the US banned imported cars entirely in 1988. This allowed American automakers to profit despite stagnating. It wasn't until foreign subsidiaries started capturing market share from the US that American automakers were forced to innovate again.