US taxpayer to pay to export GM auto jobs to China

In 2003, when Bush invaded Iraq and the US govt started piling up deficits instead of surpluses, the writing was on the wall for a lot of things, including US auto makers. Some elements of the vietnam-era "Guns & Butter" economic turmoil were almost certain to come into play.

I looked at GM (and US auto makers generally) and thought to myself: "These companies are dead unless they start preparing to make small cars". Oil prices were going to be increasingly unstable. Interest rates were sure to rise. The US dollar was going to be a very unstable thing. That much was obvious to me, standing in my yard, looking at my huge willow tree, in 2003.

The US automakers and all the "experts" couldn't see any of it. Maybe they wanted top run the US operation into the ground so they could ditch the unions and "save" themselves by importing new cars from factories in China....all paid for by the US taxpayer.

We now have some confirmation that this may well be exactly what they have been doing. Because this is in the Wall Street Journal and we can have no confidence it will remain visible, I'll post it here in full:

By WSJ Staff

General Motors plans to start importing Chinese-built vehicles into the U.S. in 2011, according to an outline the auto maker has submitted to members of the U.S. Congress.

GM currently manufacturers vehicles in China for sale in Asia. But the company plans for the first time to ship some of those vehicles to the U.S. to save on manufacturing costs.

A summary of the plan, obtained by Dow Jones Newswires, shows that GM plans to import 17,335 Chinese-built vehicles into the U.S. in 2011. The imports from China would jump to more than 38,000 in 2012 and more than 53,000 in 2013, the document shows. Imports from other countries, including South Korea, Japan and Mexico, would also increase. The plan is part of a broader cost-cutting strategy by GM, which has said it intends to cut 21,000 manufacturing jobs in the U.S. while increasing imports into the country.

Those plans are being devised under the guidance of U.S. President Barack Obama’s auto-industry task force as part of GM’s restructuring.

A GM spokesman declined to comment Wednesday, saying that negotiations between the United Auto Workers union and the company are ongoing.

The plans are being strongly opposed by the UAW, which argues that the company, surviving on more than $15 billion in U.S. loans, shouldn’t be using taxpayer money to subsidize U.S. job losses. – Josh Mitchell