First aid for Detroit and a new three-way partnership for the industry
Like a battlefield tactician, Jimmy Carter last week jetted halfway round the world in a two-pronged attack on the problems of the American auto industry. First he summoned auto-company officials to a 7:05-a.m. meeting at Detroit's Metro Airport to announce a $1 billion Government assistance program. Then he hopped back aboard Air Force One and flew off to Tokyo for a memorial service honoring the late Japanese Prime Minister, Masayoshi Ohira. Though autos were not on the agenda of the President's 21-hour stay in Tokyo, his Japanese hosts could hardly overlook the well-publicized stopover in the heart of the U.S. auto industry. The message: Jimmy Carter was attempting to rescue the U.S.'s sickest industry, and he wanted Japanese help.
The action promised by the President at the Detroit airport will do little to ease the immediate pain of an American auto depression that has left nearly 300,000 assembly-line workers and white-collar executives jobless. But Carter held out the prospect of something potentially more far reaching: a new "close-knit, permanent partnership" with automakers and their employees.
Specifics of the Carter program:
Regulation. The Government will rescind some costly federal rules, such as emissions standards for pollution-prone high altitude areas like Denver, relax factory standards for worker exposure to toxic materials, and ease up on certain auto durability test requirements. The Department of Transportation promised that it would not issue any new regulations for the rest of the year.
Tax policy. The Treasury Department is studying ways to permit the auto industry to take faster tax write-offs on the new tools and equipment being installed to build smaller, fuel-efficient cars.
Car-dealer assistance. Up to $400 million in federal money will be made available in guaranteed Small Business Administration loans to auto dealers. So far this year some 700 of them have been forced to close their doors.
Community aid. The Administration will provide $50 million to help rebuild old plants in such cities as Mahwah, N.J., Flint, Mich., and Kokomo, Ind., that have been jarred by auto-plant closings.
Trade policy. The President said he would ask for a faster review of the United Auto Workers' request for restrictions on Japanese-car imports.
The automakers reacted cautiously to the White House package. Detroit numbers men, no doubt using their Japanese-made calculators, found some election-year hyperbole in the $1 billion price tag. Said General Motors President Elliott M. Estes: "We can't quite add all that up yet." Most Detroit officials were disappointed that the President had failed to promise an immediate reduction in Japanese imports, as demanded by the U.A.W., Ford and Chrysler. Groused Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca: "It seems almost insane to have 300,000 people on the street here, with the Japanese working Saturdays and Sundays."