Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
Canada-US Automotive Products Agreement (Autopact), a conditional free-trade agreement signed by Canada and the US in January 1965 to create a single North American market for passenger cars, trucks, buses, tires and automotive parts. In Canada FREE TRADE does not apply to consumer sales; it applies solely to manufacturers who meet certain conditions. Under the agreement, motor-vehicle manufacturers are obliged to maintain the same ratio of production to sales in Canada as existed in the 1964 model year; to maintain Canadian value-added or Canadian content equal to the 1964 model year; and have been required (from 1965 onwards) to increase Canadian value-added by 60% of the growth in the value of passenger cars sold (50% for trucks and 40% for buses).
Between 1965 and 1982 Canada had an overall automotive trade deficit of $12.1 billion with the US, with a surplus of about $28 billion in assembled vehicles and a deficit of about $40.5 billion in automotive parts. Canada had overall surpluses in 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1982. Since 1982 Canada has had a continuing surplus with the US. In 1982-86 exports were $135.5 billion and imports were $112.9 billion, for a 5-year surplus of $22.5 billion.
The 2 principal purposes of the Autopact were to lower Canadian production costs through more efficient production of fewer lines of motor vehicles and parts, and to lower consumer prices. However, critics note that the industry has remained essentially foreign controlled and that Canadian subsidiaries are less autonomous than they once were. In addition, they note that the industry spends little on research and development in Canada. Automotive industry employment totalled 70 600 in 1965, reached about 125 000 in 1978 before falling to about 99 000 in 1982. Since then employment has recovered to about 140 000.
Under the Free Trade agreement negotiated with the US in 1987, Canadian safeguards would remain, with North American auto producers losing their right to import parts and vehicles duty-free from other countries unless the safeguards were met. Japanese and other offshore automakers would not be able to join the Autopact. The Canada-US pact can be terminated at any time by 12 months written notice by either government
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0001245
Best of luck and I hope someday you can help China change.
Respectfully,
Rocky
http://canadianeconomy.gc.ca/english/economy/1965canada_us_auto_pact.html
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '08 Charger R/T Daytona; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '08 Maser QP; '11 Mini Cooper S
Mexico is one of the most beautiful country's in the world and has some of the largest natural resources yet to be extracted. WHY ????????????????
Yes the Canadians Auto Workers are part of the UAW. I have said over and over again that Canada might as well be the 51st state. We are very close. kinda like sisters. Canada is a developed FREE country that supports human rights, freedom of speach, the right to vote, child labor laws, etc etc. The UAW is going to support those rights and in Canada you can't cross the picket line I'd rather buy a (CAW) GM vehicle assembled in Canada than a Toyota built in Kentucky. Why ? The money still goes to GM which is a domestic american comapany. Also that Canadian built GM vehicle also has more American Content than the Toyota. I however will say this. If the Asains ever get the american content upwards of 85-90% I won't complain too much. They are at 65% for the Acura TL.
(I unfortunatly use to own one) The Honda Accord some say is 70% ???? 15% more to go and it will be American enough for me to not complain to much. Now if the plants someday become union then I will support them even more. Why ? I truely care about my fellow american and want he/she to earn a fair wage, benefits, retirement, which should be entitled to all people living in our great country. Not just for the select few with golden parachutes.
Rocky
I'd would be happy enough if it was 80% American and 20% Canadian=100% North American Made.
I got a question ol' timers !!!!!! What was the last 100% American made car ?????? I would like to really know the answer.
Rocky
On the other hand, if I buy a car that was made in Europe or Japan, the people who made it are better off (including things like health insurance, pension and disposable income) then the people who make cars in the US. So why shouldn't I buy the foreign made car?
reddogs, I can see WHY he made that suggestion. I however gotta strongly agree with you. :shades:
Rocky
A few trade laws repealed and tariffs enforced would stop the bleeding of american manufactoring
Rocky
And what exactly is your definition of 'fair wage'? Some kids go to school, struggle to get into a good college , take loans to pay steep tutions, get into a financial services firm, work for whatever hours are required, pay $160+ a month for healthcare (with deductibles), no pensions but only 401(k) and can potentially get fired at the drop of a hat.
Some kids chill out at school, grind through high school, get a job as a UAW worker, free healthcare for the entire clan for life, iron clad pensions, no firing, get paid for not working yada yada yada.
You can maybe find 100,000 people to do the first job. You can find 2 billion people to so the second job.
So how on earth is that fair wage / fair compensation. Wake up brother. Communism is dead. America led the free world into globalization and that is the future of the world. If there are a billion people who can do an autoworkers job for less, they will do it till such time their wages come up and match those of the others, which will of course go down.
If building a car requires skills which a person in Mexico can provide at a quarter the wages and benefits of an American, power be with him. If the American car worker believes that he is worth more than the low worker wages, he can do something else. This is a free country end everyone has the freedom to do whatever he wants to do. Cross-class mobility is way better here than anywhere else in the world. People will have to live with what they deserve in the new world, not with what they have come to expect.
Coming back to cars, all I care about is how good a car is. If you are so concerned about foreigners not making any money, turn in the entire mortgage you took out. A foreigner is making money out of it. Sell you car (American/Korean whatever) coz some foreigner has loaned you that money and is making a profit out of it. The world is too mixed up to be able to figure out the origin of money.
Cars need to be purchased of how good you feel about it. If American brands make you feel better, go ahead. There is nothing called and America / Japanese or whatever car. Most probably most of the money GM raises is from a market where inverstors are from all over the world. Ultimately any money made flows up to them. A car is not just about where a part was made or assembled. It starts way far behind. But if assembling is what makes you happy, be happy.
Absolutely. Our forefathers would roll over in their graves to see that descendants of entreprenurial, hard working, spirited, risk - taking, focussed, creative ancestors are lazy bums who want to put no effort into building their lives but expect everything to come to them at no cost.
I'd say so.
Bill Clinton signed it (NAFTA) into law unchanged which left the unions feeling back stabbed for supporting him, after their canidate former Gov. of California Jerry Brown bit the dust. The next great Union canidate is none other than John Edwards whom wants to repeal trade treaties and NAFTA & CAFTA since he believes it's doing grave danger to the American Worker and american buisness that has to compete with cheap foreign made goods. I think GM and Bill Ford will support him.(Edwards) Even if it's done secretly.
They also feel betrayed by Dubya because he did nothing to the oil company's and their high gas gouging prices that killed the american automobile industry into losses. Bill Ford went to President Bush and asked for help. He recieved a cold shoulder from our President. :mad:
But yes Slick Willy's biggest blunder outside of his sex scandel is NAFTA. I like Bill Clinton, but the NAFTA blunder makes me hate him at the same time. :mad:
Rocky
I guess that was the good old days ... before certain posters showed up.
Rocky
My father has acquired lots of skills either through college education, military, and on the job training that GM/Delphi paid for.
Shouldn't they count as something ?????
I however do understand where you are coming from.
Alot of americans can't really afford $80K+ in college debt to acquire education and eat. I have college broke friends that are borderline poverty.
I think the best way to get a college education is to work for a company that will sponsor one to go to school. However this isn't available to everyone. I guess if you go to school and get a bachelors degree in a discipline and the job market offers you $25,000 a yr. and you owe $60K in college loans how much further ahead are you ???? Just because one goes to college and acquires a degree doesn't make you BETTER than the guy making a car part at Delphi or GM whom acquired a SKILL with either company sponsored on the job training and classes, or a certificate at a trade school.
Both (Bachelors and new job skill) should be rewarded respectively.
Alot of my friends who have college degrees don't even practice in their discipline. If they got a job out of their discipline, are you saying they should still get handsomely compensated because they got a piece of paper saying I went through 4 years of college, but I never worked anywhere in my life ??????
I've seen in my short life of 27 years, people that had Mommy and Daddy pay for their college and never worked a real job, except maybe mowing mommy's lawn. They just simpily went to college and got drunk 3 or more times a week and showed up and did some homework. If I was a employer, I would want someone with real life working expierence. I'd promote or enhance the guy working his or hers tail off at my company, not some young whipper snapper fresh out of college that doesn't understand what's going on at the bottom level. I think this is why General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, and corporate america was also so sucessful in the past because ordinary Joes would get promoted to high level positions eventually if they were willing to go the extra mile and take company paid college and training.
However we can agree to disagree which is fine by me.
Respectfully,
Rocky
Rocky
And that managers and marketers aren't?
Since GM workers don't have to get raises based on brown nosing then they are looked down upon by some I guess. Maybe that's where all the hatred comes from ????? :confuse:
Rocky
There's an outdated way of looking at things... Check Wall street for that answer...
So if it's a GM built in Mexico, that's OK? But a Honda built in Ohio by NON-japanese labor is wrong???? :confuse:
Keep touting the good ol' Garbage Motors all you want. Doesn't make a BIT of difference to me or any other person who chooses otherwise. Not YOUR money to spend, not YOUR decision...
"Furthermore, just because the guy who ran you off the road was in an American automobile, what does that have to do with whether you should buy American cars or not?"
:confuse: That's not my reason for buying what I've bought. And if you follow my posts on Edmunds, I have given props to where necessary (Fusion triplets, Chrysler, Saturn Sky, HHR...) Doesn't mean I am going to defect to "domestic only" because you said to...
Once again, Welcome to a FREE America, enjoy your stay...
They were too poor, disadvantaged or enslaved by totalitarian regimes to prosper.
Today, 50 years later, they have seen the dream on some tv somewhere and are running after it full speed.
We are complacent, overweight and visionless and preparing enslavement.
Incidentally, most of the 'treaties' and global trade mechanisms like WTO were proposed, set up and created by the developed nations. The idea was definitely very self-serving. The developed nations would export all the industrial goods into the nations without industrial infrastructure and make money.
Today, CocaCola China buys water there, sets up and sells Coke there and the profit is pocketed in the US. Intel makes processors in Taiwan, sells them in India and pockets the profits here. Same goes with McDonalds, Levis, Apple, Microsoft, GE and wait, GM and Ford too. GM and Ford make the completely anti noises when they operate in other countries. There they cry for greater access for foreign companies and less domestic protectionism.
That is the beauty of globalization, as expected by the multinationals (mostly US based). However, as Morpheus said in Matrix, fate it seems wasnt without a sense of irony. That labour could be made a commodity just like industrial goods never figures in the calculation of developed countries I guess. And that is hitting back with a vengeance.
The Pandora's box is now open. Unless auto workers here prove that they are somehow way more skilled or productive than autoworkers elsewhere, wages and lifestyles will continue to converge.
And as far as the American debate goes, this country is currently running a current account deficit. That means we are consuming more than we make and someone is funding that. Someone who is not American. In other words we are living on borrowed money. If buying American on borrowed non American money makes someone feel awesome then well, good for you.
50 years ago we were sold the American Dream as we watched TV. We ran after it.
They were too poor, disadvantaged or enslaved by totalitarian regimes to prosper.
Today, 50 years later, they have seen the dream on some tv somewhere and are running after it full speed.
We are complacent, overweight and visionless and preparing enslavement.
I posted a response earlier, but took it down(even though no one told me to).
Why? Well, I am trying not to be a nasty individual on here, or get banned.
I will say this: Big3, International DO NOT hire direct hire unless you know someone, a relative, at thier plants.
That is call Nepotisim, NOT COOL.
Honda, on the other hand, is expanding their Ohio plant, and advertised in the local papers, and No Pre-requisites(like, is you mom, uncle, brother working here).
What's more American? A company that refuses to let ou fill out an application, unless mom works there, or a company that has Open Door Policy! Open Door Policy, to me(A disabled American veteran).
When I need a hand(a good job) in 95, when jobs were plentiful, i was told to take a hike.
That does not mean I still would not consider a Big3 vehicle, despite them refusing to let me try for a job cleaning their restrooms, even.
PS: I THOUGHT WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GET OFF OF THIS ATTACK EACH OTHER NONSENSE. NO ONE READ ANYMORE?
PT already said.......Let's(including me) try to follow rules, cool?
:mad:
And like I said, there prerogative to hire that way. they do the same at a drink/candy company , local company.
Heard they had a job, through the grapevine. I went, asked if they needed a driver, and they said we aren't hiring"... I told them who sent me, and said, "yeah, we're hiring, but you got to know someone here who is a driver already for us" , and then they tried to smooth over their reply, etc.
I just left. Small towns are notoriously bad about Nepotism/friends and family only. :mad:
I went to school, Business degree, 2 years, emphasis on Commercial Arts. No jobs. Even had VA looking for 1 year.
So, guess janitor job is good enough for this DAV. :confuse:
It is bad when a small company does not hire due to Nepotism, but large companies, auto and truck companies, etc.... :confuse:
Anyhow, GM owns Daewoo, along with Suzuki(owns 14.9%, and some Chinese company owns like 9%?). So an American and a Japanese company each sell S Korean cars now.
That should tell the story about "what's American" these days.
I can understand your frusteration if you don't have inside connections. I've been blessed to have this once happen to me. Both the company and I were obviously happy with the outcome.
Rocky
:confuse:
Here we go digressing again, off the subject.
I will stop here.
Later.
DAV
83-94
I'm sorry you can't get a good job after serving 11 yrs. in the military. That's ashame. How old are you ??? What branch of the military were you in ???? Would you be interested in a para-military job ???? I would like to know if you have a degree or skill in a certain discipline ????
I might beable to help you because of your military service. I got a possible job for you if your willing to move to Amarillo, Tx (West Texas) area or atleast a lead depending on your background.
Lemme know if your interested
If so I will list my e-mail address
Rocky
Outsource it. Go to India, where you can get a very decent education for a lot less. And, those degrees are recognized in this country.
When I went to school, kids did far more partying than studying. I went to one college reunion and it was quite obvious I did better than any of them. One former classmate was living in a trailer park. Shoot, even when I first got out of school I found it tough to get a job. I was driving a taxicab for the first six months following school. I also worked a variety of jobs for 80+ hours a week that would've made a poultry plant worker's job seem prestigious. I was wondering, "I went to school for this?"
Kids, a college degree isn't the magic bullet it once was!
On another note, I saw someone saying they "bought American" when they bought an 8 year old Saturn. They didn't seem to understand that buying a USED American car doesn't help the market. This person is also a shrill pseudopatriot, FWIW.
I went to a Nissan dealership to get parts for old Sentra. One of the guys there tried to get me in a 350z. His last attempt to convince me was "the economy needs it!"
Sorry. I went to college and did study something useful (and hard... I regret partying so little), but the payoff isn't immediate.
And it only took child labor laws, unions, and actual enforcement of the law to fix it...
Any bets on whether the 'worker's paradise' of Communist China will do the same for it's workers?
I am trying to finish(one class left, 16 weeks this Spring) Commercial Arts classes( work for news papers developing advertisements, or magazines, but they tend to want under 25 years old age group).
me? I am over 4 decades old. Too old to rock and roll(supposedly) and too young to die(isn't that a line in a 70's rock tune?)
I was a cook in the USCG, and a Boatswains Mate in the Navy.
Also took some accounting classes( 2 of them) in USCG(like a quick accounting for dummies, sort of )
I had a chance for one job, but the lady refused to hire me because I live about 40 minutes away( could have been the head cook for an assisted living nursing home in an expensive part of the area)... could have made 26K(10 years ago)... per year.... lady called back 2 years alter, and wanted me to work for her, and when she found out we only moved maybe 12 miles closer..... never returned my call about the interview :mad:
my spouse drives 130 miles a day for work, and father in law 150.....house is almost paid off, and they can't get anything for same price closer to where he works, these days, so he gets used vehicles, and runs em into the ground in 3 years, and buys more used.
Sorry to prattle....
yes, i should have done like my 55 year old neighbor down the road(still may do it after i finish my 2 year degree this Spring).... try to get in JVS(Junior Vocational School) for 6 weeks for basic welding. He is making 11 per hour, works m-f, off all holidays and weekends, and is doing ok. Not as much money as when he worked at Corningware plant, but he is better off than doing the Wal-Mart shuffle.
Interesting you bring up the Saturn VUE. Apparently, the 2004 Saturn VUE with the HONDA engine had a HIGHER domestic parts content than the 2003 Saturn VUE with the GM engine.
http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4021986
The Honda engine is built in Ohio. The GM engine was built by GM of Europe. I wonder which is 'better' for America.
Rocky
Rocky
Especially if you went to a big university, you could have $80K+ tied up into loans. If that's the case, then that person is the uneducated one with a collge degree.
Rocky
:P
Those with vested interests at GM/Ford or their stocks, as well as fans of domestics, will forever try to convince everyone that Ameican = GM/Ford, but I think this is no longer the mainstream belief, at least where I'm from.
Jobs are jobs. If Toyota, Hyundai, etc are building cars here with ever increasing domestic content, we win.
If GM/Ford close factories here due to boneheaded business decisions, or move production to Mexico, or decrease domestic content, we lose.
Some profits may go back to Toyota, Hyundai, etc's respective countries, but strong economy for our allies help us too. Dont forget, it's not like Japan, SKorea, and Germany are our enemies!
Also, Toyota, Hyundai, etc need us, the US consumers, to be prosperous for them to sell us cars. It's in their interest to make sure US stays strong.