The Effectiveness of Orderly Marketing Agreements: The Color TV Case

In the spring of 1977, the United States negotiated an Orderly Marketing Agreement with Japan that reduced the number of Japanese color television imports into the U.S. to 1.56 million units from their high of 2.5 million units reached in 1976. During the 1977-1980 period, incomplete TV imports rose to nearly 3 million units from virtually zero in 1976. Subtracting these from total "U.S.-produced" TV's indicates that the domestic production of color TV's has increased only slightly since the imposition of the trade restrictions. Moreover, since 1977, the number of persons employed, and the average number of man-hours worked in the domestic industry, have declined.