Your comment is a general good advice but is the dumping argument valid? The good and popular cars in China have a very long waiting list locally too because of their high population.

Re. the homegrown companies concept: this was the initial concept when imports were tightened in the 1980s. That companies will come, initially as CBU then SKD then CKD then localization/deletion and then full-blown local R&D then export.

As you can see from the posts in this blog and the overall scenario, this never happened because of the mafia-istic way Japani companies and their local partners chose to conduct their business, instead they have become a leech on Pakistan’s economy.

Point to ponder: If Japanese brands can thrive in tough markets like the US by continuously realigning their strategy where the government and policy is always hostile towards foriegn brands under the extreme pressure of labour unions, why do they need utmost government coddling in Pakistan?

Chinese Automotive companies have so much excess capacity in China mainland that they are pissing everyone off by exporting cheap cars resulting in tariffs getting imposed on them, there is no chance of them making Pakistan an export hub.

You need homegrown Pakistani Auto companies and Auto parts suppliers to achieve independence like Tata, Mahindra, Hero, Bajaj, Royal Enfield, TVS etc are exporting Billions of Dollars worth of products from India.

“M ANWAR KHAN April 8, 2024 At 4:12 pm
This dispute will be seen under WTO Agreement on Trade Related Investment Measures ( TRIMS). Under this agreement, one of the five prohibited TRIMS is the govt mandatory requirement on investors to export certain fixed amount r percentage of goods.”

So basically it is a requirement that only helps Japan, since Japanese cars or the spare parts of Japanese cars can get exported in turn earning royalties for the Japanese corporations but they don’t want anyone else to prosper. They rather hold everyone hostage and continue to be a parasite rather than an enabler.

This is a loaded sentence. 25 cases doesn’t seem to be a very big number. Companies get sued all the time, it could be some labour wages dispute, land ownership dispute, small payment dispute, consumer claims, tax concerns. It could literally be any big or small thing.

Are the new entrants involved in some international-level cases just after their inception? Low probability. It must be something local. Fighting for the same bone maybe. Or maybe not even fighting for the same bone but the big baddie wants all the bones for himself/herself.

Some deeper detail should be in there. The main keyword is “involving new market entrants”.
So did the new market entrants sue the existing market players? Low chance.
So did the existing market players sue the new market entrants? Sounds plausible.

If yes then the “regulatory challenges” means that new entrants aren’t offered adequate confidence and the established players are just suing them out of existence.

The only thing Japs have given to the Pakistani consumer is old obsoleted fuel-guzzling over-expensive featureless and unsafe cars all the while holding the entire country hostage. You can imagine the countless number of preventable deaths only took place just because of the lack of safety features in the overpriced locally assembled Japs branded vehicles. Japan is existing with clean hands in this world. Numerous deaths os Pakistani citizens and residents deaths can be attributed to this behaviour.

In any other nation, the industry is given a set of rules which are followed. Here, these industries are dictating rules to us! Did these Japanese companies give such ultimatums to other nations regarding export? The US, UK, India, Thailand, Indonesia etc. So why are such ultimatums given to Pakistan and why are our dear leaders entertaining them?

The sad part is how Pakistan works. We are a nation addicted to imports and foreign aid. And like any good addict, we don’t want to rock the boat. If the aid-givers are displeased, we don’t get our fix OR our easy ride; and our dear leaders would have to actually work for a living.

This also highlights another very clear aspect of the Japanese auto companies. They are now over saturated for production in the region! India, Thailand, Indonesia, China all cater to the majority of the demand around them and in other regions. Their supply chain for vehicles is good and well catered for. Bringing in Pakistan with its serious lack of quality and lack of expertise in making global quality and safety standards complying vehicles will only create problems. The Japanese companies are good with things as they are now. They don’t need Pakistan to muddy the waters.
Only our “skewed in their favor, no questions asked” market is required by them. With the plant closures and price hikes and sales drops, in any other market, these companies would have folded. But in Pakistan they only saw a profit drop! NOT a LOSS, BUT a profit drop ONLY!! They still made decent profits! Selling mostly outdate, underequipped leftovers. No wonder they want Pakistan!

One other factor which they have now, themselves, stated so clearly is that the RHD market is very limited. This is another leftover “gift” from our days under the “British Raj”. We are a RHD market stuck in a limited RHD world.

I have said so many times before. Our future prospects and expectations of income from the auto sector are NOT in CBU vehicle exports, but in exports of locally made parts. Especially where these old Japanese companies are concerned. Most car parts do not care if they are fitted to RHD or LHD cars.

On the other hand we have another opportunity here. We can work closely with the car companies from China and increase not only their RHD assembly capacity here for exports, we can ask them to establish assembly of LHD vehicles here for exports as well. That was the purpose of China’s belt road initiative in the first place, right?; To expand China’s business opportunities. So why the delay in something so obvious as our next step? If the Japanese can’t do it or refuse to, why stop others from doing it? Its a free market right?

Rules are in place for all. If the Japanese companies cannot make them work, that is their is their incompetence. They should not be allowed to dictate rules for all companies which favor their (Japan’s) way of doing business here. The Japanese car companies are busy securing their Pakistani market as the like it. A decades old free ride. Whatever is left over, just dump it in Pakistan. The export debate has been going on for some time now. These companies with their over qualified “experts” saw where the market was headed long before us simple folk. The real question is why did these companies ignored it to this point? The simple answer is that they were secure in their ability of manipulating the policy and the market to their needs. That type of thinking should not fly anymore.

The one thing I do wholeheartedly agree with is the government must establish FTOs for parts export for all companies.

The government should take their advice under advisement. However, as soon as they start getting political, Its time to let them go or put them in their place. Like I said before, these companies from Japan have till now been NET IMPORTERS. They have cost Pakistan more than what they have ever brought in or given back to the community in the form of salaries/jobs/taxes or token “community projects”. THEY NEED US MORE THAN WE NEED THEM!!! Its time to wake up to that simple fact. And most of all its time to wake up to the fact that now, thanks to China and its power and its economical dominance, WE HAVE OPTIONS!!!. Too bad due to the unbreakable hold from the west, the east and Others, we have been made to forget this simple fact. Its time these companies were made to pull their own weight in a fair and even market.

MOST OF ALL, its time that the government stops trying to simply impress us with titles like “CSS” or “Professor Doctor flana dimkana” and actually shows us the substance behind those titles and/or degrees.
There should be NO COMPROMISE ON EXPORTS for ALL local auto companies!

To hell with the politics! For once, do what is necessary to fix the country!