3 ms·

Tariffs, which are just a regressive tax increase on car consumers, are a very bad industrial policy. You want to do export promotion instead.

mschuster91 3y ago
> You want to do export promotion instead. That's what us Germans did, and look where it brought us to: our car companies make a significant chunk of their profit in China - Deka estimates the Chinese share of BMW profits at ~40% [1], for VW all I could find is that 41% of their exports go to China, for Mercedes it's 37%. Now the Chinese government is massively subsidizing domestic electric vehicles, and our car companies are headed for very dark times. [1] https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/industrie/autohersteller-china-deal-beschert-bmw-rekordgewinn/29116782.html https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/industrie/autoherst... [2] https://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/autoindustrie/volkswagen-ohne-china-nicht-mehr-vorstellbar-rekordanteil-des-asiengeschaefts-a-9e3a722c-42f4-46d3-9f9e-3b1599e8c9ea https://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/autoindustrie/vol... [3] https://www.inrlp.de/ratgeber/fahren/mercedes-benz-china-autoindustrie-markt-absatzzahlen-vw-audi-automesse-shanghai-art-5676218 https://www.inrlp.de/ratgeber/fahren/mercedes-benz-china-aut...
- astrange 3y ago
  Sounds like they made a lot of money they wouldn't have otherwise. If they're not making that in the future, that's still better than the alternative. You could always sell to the rest of Europe, but since they're in a fiscal union with you and you refuse to deficit spend, they're not very good customers.
  - mschuster91 3y ago
    The problem is the car manufacturers are massively leveraged against and now China has our economies by the balls. All the CCP needs to do is squeeze them and we're in for many years of pain as we unravel our unhealthy dependency on both China and the automotive industry.
    - lucaspm98 3y ago
      That seems more like a mismanagement of risk outside of, and confirming, the windfall from the overwhelming success of the export promotion.

mschuster91 3y ago

> You want to do export promotion instead. That's what us Germans did, and look where it brought us to: our car companies make a significant chunk of their profit in China - Deka estimates the Chinese share of BMW profits at ~40% [1], for VW all I could find is that 41% of their exports go to China, for Mercedes it's 37%. Now the Chinese government is massively subsidizing domestic electric vehicles, and our car companies are headed for very dark times. [1] https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/industrie/autohersteller-china-deal-beschert-bmw-rekordgewinn/29116782.html https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/industrie/autoherst... [2] https://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/autoindustrie/volkswagen-ohne-china-nicht-mehr-vorstellbar-rekordanteil-des-asiengeschaefts-a-9e3a722c-42f4-46d3-9f9e-3b1599e8c9ea https://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/autoindustrie/vol... [3] https://www.inrlp.de/ratgeber/fahren/mercedes-benz-china-autoindustrie-markt-absatzzahlen-vw-audi-automesse-shanghai-art-5676218 https://www.inrlp.de/ratgeber/fahren/mercedes-benz-china-aut...

astrange 3y ago
Sounds like they made a lot of money they wouldn't have otherwise. If they're not making that in the future, that's still better than the alternative. You could always sell to the rest of Europe, but since they're in a fiscal union with you and you refuse to deficit spend, they're not very good customers.
- mschuster91 3y ago
  The problem is the car manufacturers are massively leveraged against and now China has our economies by the balls. All the CCP needs to do is squeeze them and we're in for many years of pain as we unravel our unhealthy dependency on both China and the automotive industry.
  - lucaspm98 3y ago
    That seems more like a mismanagement of risk outside of, and confirming, the windfall from the overwhelming success of the export promotion.