Obama's hollow claims on the benefits of the tpp for the American Auto Industry

[cali]

One of President Barack Obama's favorite sales pitches for his proposed trade deal with Pacific Rim nations -- known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP -- is that it will be a boon to the U.S. auto industry. If the TPP is passed, Obama argues, more Ford Mustangs and Chevy pick-ups will be cruising the streets of Japan.

<snip>

"If you drive around Washington, there are a whole bunch of Japanese cars. You go to Tokyo and count how many Chryslers and GM and Ford cars there are. So the current situation is not working for us," Obama said at a news conference on April 17th. "And I don't know why it is that folks would be opposed to us opening up the Japanese market more for U.S. autos."

<snip>

The Obama administration is careful not to accuse Japan of imposing tariffs on U.S. cars shipped to Japan. That's because there aren't any. In fact, the U.S. imposes tariffs on Japanese autos. Reducing those U.S. tariffs is one of the enticements offered in the TPP as a way of attracting Japan's support.

The President's trade representatives insist the TPP will address other obstacles, so-called "non-tariff barriers," such as arbitrary standards imposed on U.S. cars that keep them out of the Japanese market.

Still, all three car companies cited by the President -- GM, Ford, and Chrysler -- have deep misgivings about the trade deal. The trade group representing the big three U.S. automakers argues the TPP fails to address Japan's potential to use currency manipulation to drive up the costs of American cars.

<snip>

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/06/politics/obama-tpp-trans-pacific-partnership-cars-japan/

[djean111]

1. Japanese cars, when I was looking at cars, seem smaller and better on gas.

And, yeah - there no tariffs imposed by Japan, but there are tariffs imposed by the US. So droppong those tariffs would, er, actually make Japanese cars more affordable? Or are we planning to sue Japan for having stricter emission and gas mileage standards?

When the very industry that Obama is touting as benefiting from the TPP disagrees, something is wrong.

The Obama administration is careful not to accuse Japan of imposing tariffs on U.S. cars shipped to Japan. That's because there aren't any. In fact, the U.S. imposes tariffs on Japanese autos. Reducing those U.S. tariffs is one of the enticements offered in the TPP as a way of attracting Japan's support.

And yet the TPP cheerleaders say this is all about reducing tariffs.

[cali]

2. I can't imagine that getting rid of the non-tariff barriers will lead to

a substantial increase in car sales in Japan. According to an article I recently read, 90% of the cars sold in Japan are sub compacts and we only make 8 models that would fit the bill.

[djean111]

3. Now there is an inconvenient truth!

I used to work in Tokyo. Just the parking would be difficult for the bigger American cars.

This whole secretive petulant do what I tell you thing is bizarre. Plus, looks like the TPP and TTIP should be called Corporate Agreements, not Trade Agreements.

[Octafish]

4. It's a boon for the OWNERs of the American Auto Industry.

For the WORKERS, no.

The NAFTA:

Here in Michigan, there aren't as many UAW members as when NAFTA got passed. A lot less. NAFTA went into effect on Jan. 1, 1994.



It's not all bad, though. What were once-bankrupt car makers and car suppliers are doing great, hiring like crazy. The problem for U.S. workers is that most of the hiring is for new plants overseas.

Consider the case of DELPHI Automotive, a parts maker spun-off when General Motors couldn't make it sufficiently profitable:

Talk about a turnaround. Delphi's epic 2005 bankruptcy exacted high costs on communities, unions and the pensions of salaried retirees. Yet the creative destruction of the four-year ordeal, shaped by management, private equity investors and the demands of the Obama auto task force, produced a global supplier that now offers 33 product lines from 141 manufacturing sites in 33 countries and employs 160,000 worldwide — only 5,000 of which work inside the United States.

-- Daniel Howes, Detroit News

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/columnists/daniel-howes/2015/02/18/howes-delphi-surges-quietly-one-regret/23655511/

The above is from a business columnist describing the good work of DELPHI's then-president in turning the company around. "Good work" is, of course, defined in maximizing shareholder value. "Shareholder," seems to me, is defined as "Owner." The same people who consider workers as a human resource.

[cali]

5. at least the big three aren't supporting this shit.

[pampango]

8. Your graph shows that UAW membership dropped by over 50% from 1979 until NAFTA started.

It looks like a drop of about 800,000 (over 1,550,000 to about 750,000) from 1979 to 1993. In the following 15 years, 1994 to 2009 membership dropped from 750,000 to about 350,000.

Other than a short term bump up in UAW membership for a couple of years after NAFTA the downward trend in UAW membership goes back to at least 15 years before NAFTA came into effect and continued at about the same rate for the 30 years covered by the graph. If NAFTA had caused the UAW's problems, one would expect an increase, or perhaps a gradual decline, in UAW membership in the years before NAFTA than a steep decline after NAFTA came into effect. The graph above does not show that scenario.

Given the "much earlier than NAFTA" problems faced by the UAW, it would be logical that the important cause lies elsewhere. To me there are 2. One is Taft-Hartley that has increasingly brought 'right-to-work' laws to more and more states leading to a move of auto jobs to "rtw" states over the years. The other cause is union-busting pioneered by Reagan and Bush I and pursued by Bush II. The decline in UAW membership from 1993 to 2000 was less than 10% compared to the 50% drops before and after Clinton.

[giftedgirl77]

6. American cars are shit.

There's a reason many people buy foreign cars & it's not bc of jobs.

[sendero]

7. There are numerous reasons..

... you will never see large quantities of American cars in China and no trade agreement can address any of them.

[pampango]

9. The US is the 3rd largest car exporter behind Germany and Japan. It is hard to imagine

that the import of cars into Japan from anywhere will increase much without major changes.

"Among those countries, the fastest-growing car exporters since 2009 were: Mexico (up 114.5% since 2009), United Kingdom (up 105.8%), United States (up 101.5%) and Slovakia (up 92.5%)."

http://www.worldstopexports.com/car-exports-country/3202

How Japan has Maintained The Most Protected and Closed Auto Market In the Industrialized World

Japan, the 3rd largest automobile market in the world, after China and the U.S., is also the industrialized world’s most closed and protectionist market.

Japan’s Closed Market isn’t natural or an accident – it was created deliberately, by government policy.

When Japan officially ‘opened’ its market, it perfected the art of using non-tariff barriers as huge obstacles to all foreign companies trying to do business in Japan to keep imports to a minimum.

For thirty years, the Japanese government has argued that US automakers would not produce vehicles that meet their consumer’s tastes or quality standards. Yet, next door, in China, now the world’s largest auto market, the number one automaker is a US company, General Motors, which sold 1.3 million cars and trucks in 2009.

http://americanautocouncil.org/sites/default/files/Japans%2BProtected%2BAuto%2BMarket.pdf

[frylock]

10. Are the big three going to retool to build up cars with right-hand drive?

yeah, I just roll my eyes when I hear him talking about exporting F150s to japan.