NAFTA auto parts makers mount drive to sweeten terms of TPP deal
Source: Globe and Mail
NAFTA auto parts makers mount drive to sweeten terms of TPP deal
Steven Chase
OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Sep. 09, 2015 3:00AM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Sep. 08, 2015 11:24PM EDT
The North American auto industry is increasing the pressure on Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to extract a better deal for NAFTA car makers from a proposed Pacific Rim trade pact as negotiators sit down to meetings with Japan this week concerning the issue.
For the first time, auto parts makers in all three countries are speaking publicly with a united voice on the matter – with industry leaders urging Ottawa, Washington and Mexico City to resist Japan’s efforts to water down domestic content rules for car manufacturing in North America.
Negotiations to create the Trans-Pacific Partnership – a massive free-trade zone covering 12 countries from Chile to Japan – hit a wall in Hawaii in late July over a deal Washington quietly struck with Tokyo that could hit the North American auto sector hard.
Ottawa and Mexico City, which had been left out of the loop, balked at an arrangement the United States had assured Japan it could sell to its NAFTA partners. Under the Japan-U.S. agreement, cars could be sold duty free in TPP member countries with only 45 per cent domestic content and auto parts would be allowed to enter duty free as long as they had just 30 per cent domestic content.
Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/nafta-auto-parts-makers-mount-drive-to-sweeten-terms-of-tpp-deal/article26268934/
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