Britain, Japan and Turkey demand access to Made in Europe - Financial Times

The United Kingdom, Japan and Turkey are seeking to obtain the full benefit of the Made in Europe rules for the automotive sector. This comes amid fears that the bloc’s new industrial policy will harm jobs and production, reports the Financial Times, as reported by UNN.

Details

According to the publication, the EU is proposing to focus the bloc’s public contracts and subsidies for technologies such as electric vehicles and clean energy on European production, making a radical shift from free-trade orthodoxy toward countering China’s dominance in these and other sectors.

Although countries that have trade agreements with the EU are included in part of the "Made in Europe" scheme, provisions requiring vehicles to be assembled in the bloc to receive support, as well as the exclusion of trading partners from certain electric vehicle subsidies and fleet schemes, could harm carmakers that are not part of the enterprise

Additionally

Carmakers operating in the United Kingdom, Japan and Turkey are seeking to obtain the full benefit of the proposed EU Industrial Accelerator Act, which sets out the rules.

Representatives of Japanese businesses said that Tokyo is seeking a bilateral agreement with Brussels to include its industry in the EU scheme.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham expressed concern to French President Emmanuel Macron, saying that the British automotive industry should not be caught in the crossfire of policies aimed at combating Chinese competition. The United Kingdom seeks to link this issue to talks with the EU on a reset in relations expected in November.

Turkey, which is in a customs union with the EU, has sought to persuade the European Commission not to exclude the country’s automotive industry from the Made in Europe rules.

Automotive trade between the EU and Turkey is worth approximately €54 billion annually, including parts, with the EU having a €2 billion export surplus. Omer Bolat, Turkey’s trade minister, told the FT that its exclusion "would hurt the EU’s own industrial base."

We remind you

Volkswagen estimates the cost of the largest restructuring in its history at approximately $16 billion ($18.6 billion), a significant portion of which will go toward cutting tens of thousands of jobs.