ABSTRACT
In the autumn of 1979, US car maker Ford was struggling to compete with cheaper imports from Japan and was considering asking the US government for protection from this unwelcome foreign competition. Ford’s chief economist at the time, William A. Niskanen, wrote a memo to the company’s executives arguing that Ford should maintain its historic commitment to free trade. He stated that if Ford should lobby the government, it should be for the removal of existing tariffs on steel, engines and other components that the company presently imported (Simison 1980). Niskanen warned that the government did not give away special favours for free, so any protection the company secured would come with conditions attached that Ford would eventually regret. Moreover, he argued that for the business to seek special privileges from government would be morally wrong. He wrote: “A common commitment to refrain from seeking special favors serves the same economic function as a common commitment to refrain from stealing” (Simison 1980: 18).
