Toyota plans to more than double its exports to South Korea to 20,700 vehicles this year, says The Nikkei [sub]. The cars come from places that used to be import nations for Toyota: The U.S. and Europe. After announcing plans to export U.S.-built cars to South Korea, Toyota now is looking to bringing made-in-Europe cars back to Asia.
The strong yen has made Japan-assembled cars uncompetitive in South Korea, whereas the relatively soft Euro makes imports from Europe interesting Toyota Korea Chief Tommy H. Nakabayashi told the Nikkei today.
The deals received extra energy from South Korea’s free-trade agreements with Europe and the U.S. The agreements will eliminate tariff barriers between the signatories. Toyota is expected to bring small diesel sedans from Europe, where they sell well.
I wonder where the US Yaris are sourced from? It would be quite funny if Toyota was switching to the French plant.
Has it not more to do with import duties if they import from Japan but not if the import from the EU or USA
Those import duties outside of a free trade zone have to be huge to neutralize cost of manufacture in Europe. I imagine it’s less so in the U.S., since the weakening dollar and recession are making American manufacturing more competitive.