Yesterday's news featured clips of the White House meeting between President Bush and his staff, and GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally and Tom LaSorda, president and chief executive officer of Chrysler Group.
Among the topics said to be on the agenda were: CAFE regulations; health care cost reductions for American auto manufacturers, and; ethanol fuel distribution infrastructural support.
There seems to be an irony that these publicly-held firms want help when others in their industry appear to be making money in this country. One does not see executives from Toyota, Honda, or Mercedes going, hats in hands, to the White House for protectionist favors.
However, with Bill Ford's recent remarks about China in mind, as alluded to in this recent post, yesterday's effort seems to be a case of "spitting into the wind."
To wit, if one really believes that China is the next destination for a large number of global automotive production jobs, why bother asking for help from the US federal government? Trends as large as that of China sucking up the relatively lower-paying auto assembly jobs are hardly going to be stopped by the actions of the American government. A few protectionist laws here or there will just start a trade war, and at a time when the Doha round is already in trouble.
Plus, even if the Detroit-based auto manufacturers were given concessions by the White House and Congress, in exchange for jobs preservation, how will those companies explain the need for even more help, subsequently, when continued cost and pricing pressure from China overwhelm this round of bailouts?
Isn't Ford's investment in China, per the prior linked blog post, evidence that the company sees more future there than in the US for automotive production? Doesn't that make a mockery of petitioning the White House for help, even as Ford relatively disinvests in the US?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment