The interconnectedness of the global car industry was indicated by Roberto Vavassori, who told the Financial Times (FT) that “for many suppliers in the automotive industry, [the Chinese] are both the biggest threat and the biggest customer.”
The attitude of some of the major car manufactures appears to be that under conditions where China is developing more technologically advanced components, their best hope for survival in the intensifying global struggle for markets and profits is not by erecting tariff walls, which raise costs and invite retaliation, but in developing some form of collaboration with Chinse producers.
The lower cost structure is significant. The FT has reported that major Chinese producers are turning out EVs that are more technologically advanced than their European counterparts and 30 percent cheaper.
Speed of innovation, not just cost, is another factor. According to one estimate cited by the FT, Chinese companies are developing new cars, incorporating better technology and design, in just one year compared to four years in Europe.
The motivations behind the opposition to the tariffs by some of Europe’s major producers were indicated in comments to the FT by Andy Palmer, the former head of the British firm Aston Martin.
He asked: “What did the Chinese do, what did the Japanese do and what did the Koreans do when they were behind on technology? They collaborated. The European industry needs to get the Chinese to localise in Europe and it needs to collaborate with them, particularly around battery technology in order to catch up.”
For workers in the auto industry, in Europe and internationally, neither path is the way forward in a situation where they face a wave of job destruction and wage cutting.
Tariff hikes will not defend jobs but will be accompanied by the intensification of the exploitation of those that remain, which will be enforced by the trade union apparatuses. Likewise, efforts by companies to develop joint ventures or other forms of collaboration will involve a vast reduction in the cost structure, to be achieved by job and wage cuts.
The only viable perspective is one based on a socialist program, that is, the fight to take political power and bring the giant global auto companies into public ownership so that the enormous advances in technology can be used and developed for the benefit of all, rather than boosting the bottom line.
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Publish date : 2024-10-31 20:37:00
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