Washington, DC — Concern about the destabilizing impact of Japan’s dangerously misaligned yen is growing across the globe, said Stephen J. Collins, President of the Automotive Trade Policy Council (ATPC), whose members include General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler.
”Last Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported remarks by a Japanese Finance Ministry official confirming that increased automobile exports from Japan to the U.S. are a result of the misaligned yen: ”Automobile shipments to the U.S. rose 7.6% from a year earlier because of higher prices per unit and the weak yen,” said the official. The yen is also sparking concern in Europe: a Reuters article reported last Wednesday that, ”The weak yen is sparking outrage in France … French policymakers have started to make noise about the yen's slide against the euro, which hit a record high of 169.05 yen on Monday.”
To highlight the ever-growing evidence about the damage caused by Japan's misaligned currency, the ATPC is launching a new ”blast fax” program to ensure that Members of Congress stay up to date on the serious damage caused by Japan's weak yen policy. Each new blast fax will be sent to every Member of Congress, and features a quote from a respected expert or publication and/or statistical data about the yen. A recent blast fax sent to Congress featured a quote from the June 23, 2007 issue of the Economist:
”There is a stronger case for declaring Japan's currency to be misaligned than China's. It is bizarre that the weakest currency is the yen, when Japan is the world's largest net creditor and had faster GDP growth than either America or the euro area in the first quarter.”
A copy of this and all subsequent blast faxes can be found at www.autoyensubsidy.org. Members of the media can sign up to receive the blast fax by sending an email with your name, outlet, fax number or e-mail address to info@autoyensubsidy.org.
”Don't take our word for it alone,” said ATPC's Collins. ”Our new blast faxes will disseminate the expert analyses, media reports and publications from around the world that every day reveal new information and express concern about the misaligned yen. Japan now exports more autos to the U.S. market than it has in nearly twenty years, and nearly every major currency other than the yen has appreciated significantly against the dollar. The weak yen continues to be a glaring contradiction in today's global financial markets.”
For additional information on Japan's artificially weak yen policy and its effects on the American auto-manufacturing industry, please visit www.autoyensubsidy.org or call 202-631-8962.
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The Automotive Trade Policy Council, Inc. (ATPC) is a Washington, D.C.- based non profit trade association that represents the common international economic, trade and investment interests of it's member companies: DaimlerChrysler Corporation, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation.
