Press Release

Japanese Auto Makers Release Survey Data: "What Makes a Car American?"

10/10/96

What Makes A Car American? JAMA Releases New Polling Data

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 -- A majority of Americans now believe
a car by any name is American if it was built in this country by
American workers. And nearly three quarters of Americans believe those
built in foreign countries by foreign workers are foreign, even if
they're sold by Ford, Chrysler or General Motors.

This shift in attitudes, reflecting the heavy manufacturing investment
by Japanese and other foreign car manufacturers in this country, is
recorded in a public opinion poll conducted by International
Communications Research (ICR) and released today by the Japan
Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA). Fifty-two percent of the
1,021 questioned by phone last month felt a car built in this country
by U.S. workers in a plant owned by a foreign company was an American
car. A resounding 71 percent considered cars built by foreign workers
in foreign countries for American companies to be foreign cars.

The growing globalization of the auto industry, in which large
multinational corporations compete with others around the world, has
brought a new dimension to trade issues for the U.S. and other
countries. For example, 86 percent of Americans believe the number of
jobs created in this country by Japanese automakers, is a significant
contribution to the American economy.

Over the past decade Japanese companies have invested $12 billion in
U.S. facilities, and directly employ about 40,000 American workers and
more than 300,000 in distribution and dealerships. Because of that
presence, 67 percent of Americans would oppose a trade policy that
would cost those workers their jobs, regardless of the benefit to Big
Three automakers.

Last year the U.S. stepped back from its threat to impose sanctions on
Japanese automobiles after it became clear that such action would
throw tens of thousands of Americans out of work. Meanwhile America's
automotive trade deficit with Canada and Mexico has been overtaking
that with Japan largely because of increasing production of Big Three
cars and parts in Canada and Mexico.

Huge majorities of Americans also believe they have benefited from
competition between the U.S. and Japanese automakers in this
country. Seventy- five percent think the Big Three improved the
quality of their cars as a result, and 64 percent believe the Big
Three would raise prices if they were protected from Japanese
competition.