Pledges of loyalty to the US, touting local investments and cars draped in red, white and blue.
At the annual Detroit auto show, foreign manufacturers have put their US patriotism on ostentatious display.
The trend by itself is nothing new and the brand message of global manufacturers often is tailored for local markets.
Photo: AFP
However, this year, with the imminent inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, this professed devotion takes on greater significance, especially at the key showcase for the auto industry, which has come under frequent attack.
The US president-elect has singled out US and foreign auto manufacturers, threatening them with steep import tariffs if they sell cars on the US market that were made in Mexico.
The auto industry has invested heavily in Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor and access to duty-free trade within the North American Free-Trade Agreement, a pact Trump also has attacked.
Photo: AFP
Some automakers have made goodwill overtures toward Trump, including Toyota Motor Corp, which on Tuesday last week fortuitously announced US$10 billion in US investment over the next five years and calling attention to that it employs 40,000 people in the US.
The newest Toyota Camry draped in the stars and stripes and emblazoned with the words “Made in America” was a prominent feature in the Japanese automaker’s area of the convention center in Detroit, Michigan.
Behind it were two Toyota Tacoma and Tundra pickups, the latter bearing a map of Texas, where it is assembled.
The red, white and blue Tacoma also let visitors know that Toyota participates in the US Chamber of Commerce’s “hiring our heroes” program to provide jobs for US military veterans.
The company “wants to be genuinely involved in American culture,” Detroit-based auto industry analyst Bertrand Rakoto said.
“Toyota is the only foreign manufacturer to get involved in NASCAR,” the popular US stock car racing series, he said.
Nearby, a Hyundai Motor Co sports utility vehicle (SUV) was decorated with the logo of US National Football League, which it sponsors, though American football has only limited appeal in South Korea.
Images of the US flag also are displayed across the screens above the display by Volkswagen AG (VW), where it is showcasing its large new SUV, the Atlas.
VW Group of America Inc president and chief executive officer Hinrich Woebcken described the Atlas as “designed for the American lifestyle and built here in the US in our state-of-the-art factory in Chattanooga,” Tennessee.
Nissan Motor Co chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn took advantage of the Detroit auto show to brag that his company has “a 33-year history of investing in the United States” and employs 22,000 people there.
The company’s plant in Smyrna, Tennessee is “the largest industry plant in North America,” working at full capacity to produce 642,000 cars last year.
As a buffer against currency fluctuations and to avoid import duties, Japanese, South Korean and German manufacturers have built numerous production facilities in the US over the past 30 years, particularly in the south rather than near Detroit, the traditional home of the US auto industry.
This is the case for Mercedes-Benz, BMW AG and Volkswagen, whose US output quadrupled between 2009 and last year, rising to 850,000 units from 214,000, according to the German auto association VDA, which called this “a clear commitment to the US as an industrial location,” especially given that 59 percent of these units are exported.
Sweden’s Volvo Car Corp also hopes to set up a factory in Charleston, South Carolina, to make cars for export.
Whatever the make, “vehicles bound for the US market are mostly manufactured in the US,” auto analyst Rakoto said.
US consumers want to buy American, he said.
“An American Honda or an American Toyota is still a patriotic purchase after all and manufacturers are openly betting on this,” he said.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
GEOPOLITICAL ISSUES? The economics ministry said that political factors should not affect supply chains linking global satellite firms and Taiwanese manufacturers Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing out of Taiwan, leading to some relocating portions of their supply chain, according to sources employed by and close to the equipment makers and corporate documents. A source at a company that is one of the numerous subcontractors that provide components for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet products said that SpaceX asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan because of geopolitical risks, pushing at least one to move production to Vietnam. A second source who collaborates with Taiwanese satellite component makers in the nation said that suppliers were directly
Top Taiwanese officials yesterday moved to ease concern about the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, making a case that the technology restrictions promised by the former US president against China would outweigh the risks to the island. The prospect of Trump’s victory in this week’s election is a worry for Taipei given the Republican nominee in the past cast doubt over the US commitment to defend it from Beijing. But other policies championed by Trump toward China hold some appeal for Taiwan. National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) described the proposed technology curbs as potentially having
TALENT FACTOR: The nation’s chip sector would be difficult to replace, but to maintain that advantage, Taiwan must retain skilled workers, an academic said A group of experts on Sunday called on Taiwan to strive to maintain its world-leading position in the semiconductor industry, with a US-China chip dispute expected to continue regardless of who becomes the next US president. Tamkang University Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies director Li Da-jung (李大中) said at a Taipei seminar on global semiconductor security that the relationship between the two superpowers would remain confrontational. There appears to be “no turning back” in US-China relations, as US presidential candidates US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump are both expected to continue Washington’s hawkish stance