Supply Chain Research

President Trump pushed Prime Minister Abe to improve access for U.S. automakers to the Japanese market at the recent G20 summit. Autos are increasingly the third leg, alongside agriculture (beef) and energy (LNG) in the administration’s export promotion push. Securing access is not the same as securing sales, however. U.S. exports to Japan were 20,300 vehicles in the past 12 months, or 0.8% of the total and compared to 3.1 million vehicles from Japan to the U.S. The latter is declining, even without the threat of tariffs. A 33.1% drop in June reflects falling U.S. sales of imported passe...