American manufactures of caustic soda that used in the manufacture of glass, steel and chemical product. caustic soda were incapable of successfully entering into Japanese market despite their price advantage. Because the Japanese union of caustic soda manufacturers set the level of import, specified which trading company work with American supplier and also bought up the cheap American imports to sell them. Therefore the success of the operation was twofold; they receive the profit instead of the American exporter and still keep control their market. The American exporter were unsuccessful in dealing directly through small distributors, since the industrial product users were concerned about the risk of isolating themselves from their main source of supply (Japanese) if they ordered directly from American exporters. - The power of competition depends on the concentration of retailers, which is likely to differ across cultures.