Ford CEO cites yen worry, opposes free trade talks with Japan

[paleotn]

7. Exactly....

...it's trade agreements with China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and other ultra-low wage, near zero regulation countries that are a more significant threat to US workers. Japan has a very high standard of living, on par with the US, the EU and Canada. You only save on shipping costs by setting up operations in Japan, nothing more.

On the other hand, I do see his point (Ford CEO). It would be nice for Japan to open it's markets as widely to US manufactured autos as we have to damn near everyone else. He's also right about currency manipulation. Since many of the pieces parts of Japanese cars produced in the US come from Japan (engines, transmissions, etc.), a cheap Yen makes Japanese name plates more competitive vs. the big 3.