Can Tata break into the South Korean car market?

How do you say non-tariff barriers in Korean?

This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.

At this year’s Seoul Motor Show, Tata Motors expressed a desire to introduce its popular passenger cars in the South Korean market. Bully for the Tatas then? Not quite.

While South Korea does not impose very high import tariffs, its market has been largely closed to foreign manufacturers. An automotive writer for a Korean daily cited patriotism as the cause for the preference for local brands. Patriotism, that is, helped by a wink and a nod from the government, for example, by auditing buyers of foreign cars. Foreign manufacturers have less than one percent share of the South Korean market.

Seoul Motor Show 2005 is supposed to mark the opening up of South Korea’s protected car market. Patriotic Indians are perfectly at home in their Hyundais, it remains to be seen if Koreans will let their sense of patriotism get in the way of a good drive.

Tailpiece: It is not known whether Tata Motors brought along the right ‘models’ to appeal to the exhibition visitors.

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