THREATENED FRENCH BOYCOTT

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 18, 22 January 1916, Page 14

THREATENED FRENCH BOYCOTT

France threatens to -ward off: / the American motor-car trad© by putting on a substantial protective tariff. It is expected that ■ the duty will be between 33 and 45 per cent. A meeting of the' Manufacturers' Association Was held in Paris to consider the question, but any decision they may have come to was not made public. The Ford firm does about the largest business in France of any American firm, and no doubt it will make a strong effort to prevent the expected boycott. The Overland and the Buick are making good headway on French soil, and about a score of other American manufacturers have agents .in France. The proposed tax is not at present needed as a protective weapon by the French firm*. Most of the factories have been organised as auxiliaries of the War Department, and shell? constitute about 60 per cent, of their, output. All factories are ,-proclucing some cars, but most. of.them are intended for the army. The protection sought aims both at "keeping the money in the country" during tho war, and preventing the whole of tho French market from going lo America