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BMW

Carmakers fill boots after record year

German carmakers are swimming in money – selling more vehicles and earning more than ever before, filling their coffers ahead of what managers are warning could be a difficult year.

Published: 13 March 2012 16:31 CET
Carmakers fill boots after record year
Photo: DPA

The remuneration of Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn made headlines this week after it hit €17.4 million, or €1,986 an hour. But this is a drop in the ocean of money earned by VW in 2011, with income reaching €15.8 billion, more than twice as much as 2010.

Other German carmakers BMW, Daimler, Audi and Porsche also broke records in 2011, thanks to booming markets in Asia and America.

The global financial crisis left little more than a dent in the German auto industry, which recovered faster and stronger than many had expected.

But the money now flooding in will be needed in the coming months, car managers have warned.

The continuing European debt crisis and flat-lining economies will not only eat away at finances – but investment will also be needed to develop new technology.

“2012 will be a key year,” said BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer as he introduced the firm’s annual results.

He was echoed by Audi chairman of the board Rupert Stadler who said, “Looking into the future one can certainly not talk of it being all flowers and sunshine.”

VW plans to invest €62.4 billion by 2016, two-thirds of which is ear-marked for making the company greener as well as bigger.

Strong competition will come in the Germans’ target markets, with Toyota keen to recover its position as the world’s biggest carmaker – a title it lost after last year’s earthquake.

Meanwhile, Korea’s Hyundai is growing in the mass market, while the Germans are also looking over their shoulders at the alliance between Opel-owner General Motors and the French owner of Peugeot, PSA.

Workers at Germany’s carmakers have profited from the good results, with Daimler receiving a profits-share of €4,100 for 2011, those working for Audi getting on average €8,251 and VW employees getting a bonus of €7,500.

DPA/The Local/hc

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FARMING

WTO rules US tariffs on Spanish olives breach rules

A US decision to slap steep import duties on Spanish olives over claims they benefited from subsidies constituted a violation of international trade rules, the World Trade Organisation ruled Friday.

Published: 22 November 2021 11:34 CET
WTO rules US tariffs on Spanish olives breach rules
Farmers had just begun harvesting olives in southern Spain when former US President Donald Trump soured the mood with the tariffs' announcement. Photo: Jorge Guerrero/AFP

Former US president Donald Trump’s administration slapped extra tariffs on Spain’s iconic agricultural export in 2018, considering their olives were subsidised and being dumped on the US market at prices below their real value.

The combined rates of the anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties go as high as 44 percent.

The European Commission, which handles trade policy for the 27 EU states, said the move was unacceptable and turned to the WTO, where a panel of experts was appointed to examine the case.

In Friday’s ruling, the WTO panel agreed with the EU’s argument that the anti-subsidy duties were illegal.

But it did not support its stance that the US anti-dumping duties violated international trade rules.

The panel said it “recommended that the United States bring its measures into conformity with its obligations”.

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis hailed the ruling, pointing out that the US duties “severely hit Spanish olive producers.”

Demonstrators take part in a 2019 protest in Madrid, called by the olive sector
Demonstrators take part in a 2019 protest in Madrid called by the olive sector to denounce low prices of olive oil and the 25 percent tariff that Spanish olives and olive oil faced in the United States. (Photo by PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)
 

“We now expect the US to take the appropriate steps to implement the WTO ruling, so that exports of ripe olives from Spain to the US can resume under normal conditions,” he said.

The European Commission charges that Spain’s exports of ripe olives to the United States, which previously raked in €67 million ($75.6 million) annually, have shrunk by nearly 60 percent since the duties were imposed.

The office of the US Trade Representative in Washington did not immediately comment on the ruling.

According to WTO rules, the parties have 60 days to file for an appeal.

If the United States does file an appeal though, it would basically amount to a veto of the ruling.

That is because the WTO Appellate Body — also known as the supreme court of world trade — stopped functioning in late 2019 after Washington blocked the appointment of new judges.

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