One point is that the US fire services seem to like really massive trucks, but fire trucks overseas are generally smaller.
Roads in the US have more space and homes in the US are more flammable
M A N makes enormous fire trucks, and they are quite popular throughout continental Europe.
Surely, the government and legal liability play no part in this, only bad businesses.
Regulation most likely.
Darn capitalism and its regulation
It’s likely regulation is a too-high barrier of entry for foreign products, and it’s also likely regulation was steered by lobbying from the currently dominant vendor.
Capitalism that has defects introduced via regulation is sort of like Communism that has defects introduced by authoritarians: the actual version that gets implemented.
Totally unregulated capitalism only works in a world full of perfectly ethical and moral people. Sounds like an Ayn Rand novel to me!
Probably the government, also-capitalist buyers would buy cheaper if they could.