Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 09:10 PM 8/23/1999 -0400, Dan Cardish wrote: >I believe that historically, Leitz built the factory in Midland, Ontario, >Canada, in order to avoid high tariffs on imports of their cameras into the >US market after WW II. Well, the tariffs weren't much of an issue -- US import tariffs on cameras were as low from Germany as from Canada, I believe. More to the point was that Canada wanted some of that great NATO gravy they would be guaranteed if they had a world-class military-optics facility in-country, gravy which would otherwise go to Zeiss or Wollensak or Zoomar or SOM Berthiot or somesuch. So, in 1954, Leitz was induced to open a plant at Midland, Ontario. I suspect the Canadian military helped fund at least some of the construction costs but so far I've not found any confirmation of this. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!