“It’s called the bowling ball test. You know what that is? That’s where they take a bowling ball from 20 feet up in the air and drop it on the hood of the car. And if the hood dents, the car doesn’t qualify,” Trump said at a Missouri fundraiser, an audio recording of which was obtained by NBC News. “It’s horrible, the way we’re treated.”
Reporters scrambled to find factual footing. Was it this a Japanese pedestrian safety test, which employs a head-shaped object roughly the size of a bowling ball? Or maybe Trump was thinking of a Nissan ad, The Washington Post suggested.
“I have no idea what he was talking about,” said Kristin Dziczek, a director at the independent research firm, Center for Automotive Research (CAR).
However, regulatory barriers are a very real issue in car exports, she said, as different countries employ different standards for things like emissions, safety and fuel economy.
Japan is not the only place where the U.S. faces hurdles. CAR estimated in one study that regulatory differences between the European Union and the United States cost the auto industry $3.3-$4.2 billion per year — more than the tariffs imposed by the E.U. and U.S. on the foreign-made cars crossing borders.
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Dziczek said the Trans-Pacific Partnership sped up the regulatory hurdles American automakers face selling cars in Japan, by allowing signatories to use the same expedited review processes domestic Japanese carmakers enjoyed with their vehicles. But Trump withdrew from the TPP shortly after his inauguration, sending the U.S. back to square one when it comes to the regulatory obstacles to that market.
James Fatheree, vice president for Asia and acting head of Asia for the International Affairs Division of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was also unfamiliar with Trump’s claim.
“I’ve not heard about a bowling ball being dropped on a car,” Fatheree told NBC News. “Usually, automotive safety tests are not allegorical.”
He said Japan does have different standards, but in recent years the country has sought to help make it easier for exporters, as they did under the TPP trade deal.
As for the supposed test being illustrative of real “creative practices” countries might use to keep American-made goods out, Fatheree said simply: “No cars would pass that test.”