What Are Voluntary Export Restraints?
A voluntary export restraint is a decision by one nation to reduce the export of a product to another nation. The emergence of voluntary export restraints came after World War II to stave off international economic tensions and to perhaps level the playing field. A somewhat more recent example is Japan’s voluntary restraint of auto exports to the United States in the early 1980s. A nation initiating voluntary export restraints does so in the hope of avoiding economic retribution from the importing nation. Exporting nations can circumvent these restraints by investing in foreign factories and/or finding new markets. Nations increased tariffs and forbade foreign imports as a way to strengthen their own domestic industries prior to 1945. The harsh repayment plans and lending policies set by Allied nations after World War I contributed to the start of World War II according to some historians. The end of World War II encouraged world leaders to encourage worldwide commerce by decreasing fo
