The Great Wall of Washington
Let’s be blunt. What we’re seeing is a form of protectionism, plain and simple. Think of it like this, the United States has effectively put up a velvet rope outside its car market. If you’re a domestic manufacturer, you’re on the guest list. If you’re shipping your cars across an ocean, you have to pay a hefty cover charge at the door. That charge, as VW has discovered, goes straight to the bottom line. It’s a punishing cost that American based producers simply don’t have to worry about. For them, it’s business as usual. For everyone else, it’s a serious, and expensive, headache.
This isn't some abstract economic theory. It is cold, hard cash being diverted from a company’s profits directly into government coffers. For an investor, that represents a structural disadvantage for one side, and a clear competitive advantage for the other.