Vehicle traders seek recall of ‘midnight’ EO

[niky]

http://business.inquirer.net/money/t...of-midnight-EO

Vehicle traders seek recall of ‘midnight’ EO

By Daxim Lucas
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—The Alliance of Vehicle Importers and Dealers (Avid) reiterated its opposition to an alleged “midnight” executive order issued by the Arroyo administration allowing local car assemblers to create a motor vehicle “super body.”

In a statement, Avid said such a move could spell “life or death” for the auto trading industry.

According to the group, some local assemblers “have shown their true colors” by stating that one of their main goals—through Executive Order No. 877-A—is to change the tariff structure of imported vehicles.

“It’s becoming clear that the real intention of EO 877-A is not only to provide, yet again, a set of generous incentives to local car assemblers; the EO is principally designed to create the Motor Vehicle Development Council—a ‘super body’ that would review and recommend raising tariffs that could price imported vehicles out the market,” Avid said in the statement.

Avid is made up of some of the country’s largest vehicle traders such as Hyundai Asia Resources Inc., CATS Motors Inc., The Covenant Car Co. Inc., Asian Carmakers, United Asia Automotive Group, PGA Cars, Focus Ventures Inc., British United Automobiles Inc. and Volvo.

It was formed to save their industry from “possible extinction,” the group said.

Apart from the Arroyo administration’s “hasty” approval of EO 877-A, the group lamented that their continuing non-inclusion in the crafting of its implementing rules “doesn’t speak well of the promised transparency under the new administration.”

Avid said there would have been no debate if the proposed Motor Vehicle Development Council envisioned by EO 877-A was only aimed at laying down the roadmap for the success of local car assemblers.

“But since part of the super body’s proposed mandate is to tinker with tariffs of its competitors’ products, it becomes an issue that we—as affected parties—should have a say,” it stressed.

Earlier, the group called on President Aquino and Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo to recall the EO, which was signed in the last days of the outgoing Arroyo administration. In seeking its recall, the group said the EO was crafted with haste, lacked public consultation and had a flawed publication.

Contrary to claims by local assemblers, Avid said its members were not seeking any incentives.

“It’s funny that some unnamed sources from the local car assembly industry are asserting that car traders are not entitled to perks reserved only for car assemblers,” the group’s statement said. “In the first place, we never assumed that we are, nor did we ask for such incentives. We only want to compete on a level playing field.”

While I agree that we should give incentives to companies to set up factories here... should we actually let a bunch of foreign corporations use our laws to fiddle with our tarriffs to gain a competitive advantage?

So what if they're employing thousands in their factories? HARI and the others are employing thousands more in its chain of dealerships across the nation.

[uls]

yan ang CAMPI

just coz they put up assembly plants, they think they should be protected from competition

they think the govt should protect them from failure

they made a bet

they took a risk

they should let the market decide if their bet is good or not

why should the govt guarantee their success?

they keep complaining about an uneven playing field

but they lobby the govt to create a playing field that favors them

screw them

[niky]

Actually... they already get benefits by having their factories in the technopark, right? Those benefits are why the Toyota Vios is so much cheaper than its competitors, and how Ford manages to keep the price of the Focus down.

The EO will probably be screwed... Noy seems adamant on correcting the mistakes of his predecessor, and it might just get the axe just for being a "midnight EO".

[uls]

yes, they already get benefits

but it's not enough for them

they're looking at what cars people are buying

to them, every car sold that doesnt come from them is a lost sale

they can't stand it

they don't just want a large slice of the pie

the want the entire pie

[niky]

Doesn't everyone?

[uls]

well yeah

but they went as far as asking the govt to drive their competition out of business

if they have their way, car buyers here will have to put up with their limited product line-up