The Clinton Administration had declared war on Japanese minivans, proposing to

increase tariffs on them tenfold. Mr. Recchia--a Detroiter whose experience in the auto

industry includes stints with Chrysler, Fiat, and Ferrari--takes us on a brisk tour of the

worldwide economic scene from the automaker's perspective. WFB: "Why doesn't the

market provide cheaper new cars? ..." RR: "In order for you to provide a low-priced

car, it really has to have tremendous volume and worldwide appeal. As long as you

restrict the number of cars that are imported into the United States, none of the worldwide

producers like Toyota are going to spend billions of dollars to produce a low-priced car

... So Toyota and all the other Japanese companies moved the type of products that they

import into the United States to the higher-priced models. That took the pressure off the

domestic industry to answer with a lower-priced car."