o American and Canadian products. Because of this, North American consumers may be tempted to switch to domestic cars rather than Japanese imports. Having production facilities in North America tempers this foreign exchange risk and helps Japanese cars remain competitive regardless of what currency rates are doing. This strategy, which Toyota began in the 1980s, is clearly paying off for the company.
Toyota is a company that does business throughout the world through exports as well as direct investment in plants and facilities. In 1997, the company sold more than 4.5 million cars worldwide, with 2.3 million sold in overseas markets. This was a ten percent increase in total sales, and an 8 percent increase in domestic sales. The company's global status can be measured by the fact that more than 50 percent of its total sales have come from foreign markets for the last five years.
The company is aggressive from an environmental standpoint with regard to the way it builds its products. The Toyota Environmental Action Plan (TEAP), announced in 1993, outlines guidelines for safeguarding and maximizing efficiency at the plant level. The guidelines call for reducing plant waste on a per vehicle basis to one-half the 1990 level by December 1995, and to less than one-fourth the 1990 level by March 2001. The company had met the one-half level by March 1994. The company also is striving to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide on a per vehicle basis to the 1990 level by 2001, and are working (without specific benchmarks) to reduce the emissions
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