But now Chrysler and General Motors are already either importing vehicles from Europe, China and Australia for sale as American models, or arranging to do so, making labor costs at home less relevant.
Such trends do not sit well with Alan Tonelson, a research fellow at the United States Business and Industry Council, which favors tariffs. He argues that the Big Three lift the rest of the national economy more than the transplants do. Specifically, he says, nearly every study shows that vehicles manufactured here by G.M., Ford and Chrysler contain a “considerably higher” percentage of American-made parts than cars rolling off the lines at the transplants.
Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, is also vexed. Citing Census Bureau data and his staff’s calculations, Mr. Levin argues that “immense barriers” erected by Japan and South Korea keep down vehicle exports from the United States to those countries. Car, truck and parts imports from Japan, for example, reached $60.2 billion last year, he said, while similar exports to Japan from the United States were a tiny $2.3 billion. He put the Korean imbalance at $12.4 billion versus $751 million.
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