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George Bush Rolls Right Past the "Big Three"
Last Tuesday George Bush met with the heads of the country's three largest automakers – Richard Wagoner, Jr. of General Motors, Alan Mulally of Ford Motor, and Tom LaSorda of the US division of DaimlerChrysler – for the first time that an American president has sat down with the auto industry since the 1970s. In response to their complaints about foreign competition and requests for lower tariffs on imported steel and help with the "social question" of expensive health insurance for employees, the president said only that he will bring up the topic of the necessity of fairness in relation to American exporters at the APEC summit in Hanoi on November 18.
American automakers are facing fierce competition from foreign firms, particularly from South Korea and Japan. The "Big Three" claim that Japan is artificially holding down the price of the yen in part to ensure big profits on the export of cars to the United States. They are also dissatisfied with the lack of access to the South Korean market and are demanding a new American-Korean trade agreement.
During the meeting, George Bush spoke again about the need to wean America off its dependence on foreign oil by finding alternative fuels and promised the automakers that he would bring up the subject of foreign competition at the summit in Hanoi. He did not mention steel tariffs or the exchange rate of the yen, and the president and the automakers failed to reach any understanding on health insurance for the industry's employees, which the companies claim adds $1,000 to the price of every new car. The industry's best hope at this point appears to be the newly Democratic Congress, where work has already begun on a raft of legislation aimed at supporting the American auto industry.
Alexander Plakhov
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 16, 2006
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