The problem come sin defining an Aemrican Company. I work for a multinational of about 1000 employees. We have employees in Great Britain, Germany, India, Australia, South America, Canada, and the US. Our corporate HQ is Cincinnati OH (where I work) but the employees in those other countries handle business in those countries. That makes sense especially as the EU and GAP regions have laws reqauiring much of the work in their nation states to be done by citizens of thos nation states. But then you have companies whose primary business is manufacturing and then importing those goods for sale here. Those are the bad corporate citizens. So you say "OK, manufacturing companies" must pay the tax. But what about Ford and other automakers who have overseas facilities making cars for sale overseas (much like Toyota makes almost all their US sold cars here in the USA)?

It's a slippery slope trying to make that judgement.

Only a couple of Toyota models are completely made in the US, the Sequoia & the Tundra. Usually the transmissions & engines are made at least partially in Japan. Also, it's an open secret that Toyota loathes its US suppliers, whom it deems to be inferior to Japanese suppliers (for an obvious reason, higher defect rates among US-made parts).
Guess that non-union work force isn't all it's cracked up to be.

How is components made overseas take away from.the car beingadept in the US? GM makes lots of components overseas, especially the L4 engines which were made in South America for a long time, yet you still call the small GM cars "American made".

Draug, maybe I'm oversimplifying but I don't care who the employees are.... I care who the shareholders and owners are. No corporation starts multinational.

The Ford-like question is a bit more complicated, but again I'd say if the profits are coming to American fatcats, the labor should be provided by American citizens if at all possible - though I agree it seems a bit wasteful to ship all the materials here for assembly then ship the finished product overseas for sale.

Still, can you tell my what percentage of Fords sales are from overseas? I'd hazard a guess it's less than 5% though that is a pure guess.

http://www.kiplinger.com/businessresource/forecast/archive/ford-looks-to-boost-sales-in-china-india.html

No shit? I'm really surprised at that. I always though foreigners scoffed at American autos.

Given the discussion apparently Ford's not an American auto :-)

The research & development for GM is done in the US, and the percentage of US made parts in the car is almost always much higher than with an import (most cars made by the Big Three are 80% US-made or so), Toyotas included. The bigger point for me though is how the workforce is treated. GM cars are union-made. Toyota is one of the most anti-union car companies there is.

Chrysler 200s - engine & transmission made in USA.
Dodge Avenger - engine & transmission made in USA.
Dodge Dakota - engine & transmission made in USA.
Dodge Nitro - engine & transmission made in USA.
Jeep Liberty - engine & transmission made in USA (Toledo, Oh!)
Jeep Wrangler - ditto
Ram 1500 - engine & trans made in USA.

That's a huge portion of the models made by Chrysler, compared to only 2 of the Toyotas.

Putin33 - engine & transmission made in USA.

redhouse1938 - engine and transmission made in a red house

Ford Europe and Ford Australia have been big in those respective regions for a long time, and in Japan the wealthier people will drive American cars as a status symbol, especially Fords since it's the most export friendly US maker. The Ford Focus was designed by Ford Europe for example.

You could jack up the import tax for US companies importing their own products, but that would lead to a lot of companies moving their corporate headquarters outside of the US in order to dodge it. There's not a good way to legislate it.