> That seems to me like their import tax is working.
Kind of. And you can see it worked for India; they started making iPhones there because of the import tax and over time are exporting iPhones from India.
But there's a lot of products that aren't big enough to justify production in multiple locations, and Brazil tends to get those very late, if at all, because the import tax makes the prices way too high. Maybe video games aren't important, but Brazil has a wildly different experience with them than the rest of the world, because of the import tax.
Also, I think only the really populous countries can manage this style of tax. With smaller countries it's easier to accept the loss of sales and avoid the expense of local production.
Kind of. And you can see it worked for India; they started making iPhones there because of the import tax and over time are exporting iPhones from India.
But there's a lot of products that aren't big enough to justify production in multiple locations, and Brazil tends to get those very late, if at all, because the import tax makes the prices way too high. Maybe video games aren't important, but Brazil has a wildly different experience with them than the rest of the world, because of the import tax.
Also, I think only the really populous countries can manage this style of tax. With smaller countries it's easier to accept the loss of sales and avoid the expense of local production.