Originally Posted by
CliffordK
The video industry has been interesting. I think it started with tapes and some countries running at 60 HZ, and others at 50 HZ.
But, most DVD and Blu-Ray discs sold have an embedded country code, and will not play in other countries.
So, if you purchase a big Blockbuster movie from the UK or Australia, it won't play on 99% of the video players in the USA.
Unfortunately, they did the same thing for locally produced videos, so if you wish to buy a small locally produced/distributed film or TV show, you're out of luck. Likewise, buying foreign language films can be problematic.
Many electronic media distribution companies are doing the same, so find some local TV show that you're interested in, distributed in another country, and you'll get your internet access blocked to the distributor's website.
The car industry has government imposed restrictions, blocking that couple of percent of "grey market" vehicles from coming in.
It may be that 40 years ago, as the governments started introducing SMOG and Safety standards, it made sense. But, now, much less so, as European and Japanese safety standards may be as good, or better than our own.
Many industries have struggled with price-fixing and Minimum Advertised Prices. And, right now the bike industry is winning over reason.
For cars, the EU and Asian safety standards are as good ours overall and better than ours in some cases. But the US tests were designed to solve the problems that have actually been seen as major on US roads, since NHTSA was started, therefore NHTSA views other standards as below the US standards. There is a lot of overlap with the EU situations, but if you don't design for and fully pass the US tests, you don't sell in the USA. Industry takes part in defining the rules and tests, but industry wants to make the same headlights (for example) for the whole world - less diversity, lower cost, more profit.
But all that blather having been said, harmonization across the Atlantic is a perennial topic in automotive engineering (one of the topics I cover in my jobs).