Except people were willing to buy Accords and Camrys over the Taurus because they were superior products worth the differrence in cost. They lowered their prices because the demand for Honda and Toyota prodcuts were higher than Ford products.
People had more money in the nineties and were willing to spend a little more for a better engineered product (many of which are built in the USA, where the Taurus is built in Mexico).
How do you know they didn't give Ford some kind of Tax assistance?
The Camry and Accord were superior products and were also about 20% cheaper until tariffs artificially increased their prices to the same level as the inferior Tarus. And the Camry was being built in Kentucky when this happened.
So the government imposed a tariff on a superior foreign product made is this country, to prop up an inferior American product made in Mexico.
Yes, the government needs to be in the tariff business.