The “admirable” Japanese consumer habit of preferring Japanese-made goods makes the removal of tariffs on European goods in that country utterly irrelevant, Andrew Brons MEP has said.
Speaking during a debate, held in the European Parliament this week on the subject of trade negotiations with Japan, Mr Brons said that the idea of “mutual reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers, between two countries or between one country and a trading bloc, sounds very even handed and fair.
“It is based on an assumption of the existence of comparable markets in each of the two countries or trading blocs.
“Indeed it is based on an assumption of utility-maximising consumers in each buying goods on the sole criteria of price and quality.
“However, Japanese consumers are as different from Western consumers, as they are admirable. They do not buy on these criteria alone.
“They are predisposed to buy Japanese goods, because they are Japanese goods.
“All of this means that the removal of EU tariffs on Japanese goods will be as efficacious as the removal of Japanese tariffs on European goods will be utterly irrelevant.”
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It does help that Japan still produces consumer goods, including automobiles. Britain has lost its manufacturing base and it will take a substantial amount of elbow grease and determination to rebuild it.
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