I think Licensing is pretty much the best way to explain it. IIRC it was/is mainly companies in developing countries that were paying to use Jeep designs rather than Jeeps being shipped overseas or Jeep manufacturing having to be spun up in the country. Recently Mahindra had a license to use Jeep designs for manufacture in India but got in trouble because they were using those designs to make vehicles for the US market (I think it was the Roxor) and that was violating their terms.