I found my notes based on the National Archives file on German Eiffel cars being sold in Egypt. This I hope will clarify what was going on at the time:
Quote:
..An Alexandria, Egypt Ford dealer complained to the British Embassy in Cairo in May 1938 that he was being undercut by the German-subsidised Ford Eifel 10 h.p. car that sold for E£135 as against the British product at E£190 to E£195. This was passed to the Department of Overseas Trade, and thence to Lord Halifax at the F.O. E.W. Flower said, inter alia:
My information is that exports of German cars are subsidized by a 3% levy on the motor agents in Germany. All agents have had their trade discounts reduced by 3%and the pool created by this levy is used to subsidize exports.
In my view this cannot be regarded strictly as a Government subsidy. It exists in a mild form with British manufacturers who quote lower prices for export than for home consumption and the German scheme only takes that policy a step further. After all the export car should not carry the overheads of advertising, road service men, exhibition and sundry expenses inherent in their home sales, so a reduced price is de facto logical.
Flower added that he was informed that an Alexandria Shipping agency had a contract for 1,000 Fords to be sent from Hamburg to Alexandria in ‘Belgian bottoms’, and thus deprived ‘British bottoms of cargo’ It was thought by the Trade Counsellor in Cairo that the Morris and Austin light cars that sold for E£160 approximately might be affected by the competition from the German light car . C.E. House of the D.O.T. wrote to H.A. Denne at Ford in London and asked him for elaboration as previously all Fords sold in Egypt were Dagenham-assembled . It was explained that the Ford Motor Company Limited had no direct control over the German company, whose shares [were also] held in the U.S., and Ford of England were unable to take any steps to prevent this competition, “which they view with dismay”. The Cologne and Dagenham products directly competed in various countries outside the U.K., U.S. and Germany. Given the close relationship between Lord Perry and Henry Ford, the suggestion seems plausible and yet Perry as Chairman of Ford in the U.K. made a speech to shareholders in May and referred to the ‘unfair competition’ of the German car and claimed that it was a case of dumping and further gave the opinion that the British Government take action to protect the British manufacturers . A D.O.T. correspondent later advised that he had seen several Eifels in Germany and although they were the equivalent of the 10 h.p. Dagenham product, they were less well finished. He also added that as Ford in the U.K. and Germany were both controlled by U.S. Ford, Dagenham could have exercised some pressure in Detroit. “It is tolerably clear that G.H.Q. in Detroit have arranged that the German product (indirectly subsidised by the German Govt. {sic.}) should have a free hand in Egypt’
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You can see therefore that Ford-Werke and Ford of England sold in North Africa, and I seriously question whether Koln sold their trucks as well?