Asia Pact Is Likely To Cost German Auto Jobs

Asia Pact Is Likely To Cost German Auto Jobs

The new super-pact RCEP that China has signed with 14 Asia-Pacific countries will radically change the global auto market. Because it strengthens the Asian competitors of the German car manufacturers, as Ferdinand Dudenhöffer from the Center Automotive Research (CAR) warns. The fact that the Europeans are now falling behind with this agreement has far-reaching consequences, which also demonstrate how "naive" Europe and Germany are on the world market. "The world is changing quickly with RCEP," says Dudenhöffer. "Since Japan and South Korea are members of the free trade agreement, Toyota, Honda, Nissan as well as Hyundai and Kia have important access to the Chinese car market." The same applies to suppliers such as Denso, Bridgestone or Sumitomo and important Asian battery suppliers such as Panasonic and Samsung. The auto expert criticizes the pact as a "major political defeat". And finally the receipt for the "one-sided US course of the federal government and the EU". The car manufacturers could only draw one conclusion from Beijing's super-pact: They urgently need to orientate themselves more towards the Far East: "One way out can only be to build up more productions in Asia," said Dudenhöffer. The same applies to the suppliers. However, this also means that auto jobs will be lost in this country. The importance of the RCEP free trade zone for the world automobile market is immense. The RCEP countries are the countries with the highest growth rates in the world, around a third of the world's economic output is generated here. HSBC predicts that it will be 50 percent by 2030. In addition, more than two billion people live in this economic area. This year alone, according to projections by the CAR Institute, 27.6 million new cars will be sold here. This corresponds to a world market share of 42.7 percent. Ascending trend. Almost every second car will be sold here from 2030.