As Detroit Three Market Share Tumbles, Asians Growing Uneasy, Sense Escalating Trade Tensions

Washington DC May 19, 2005; AIADA reported that “At a time when booming Japanese automakers are grabbing U.S. market share from faltering GM and Ford Motor Co., Toyota and Japan’s other manufacturers are growing jittery about a replay of trade tensions that surfaced during the late 1980s and early 1990s,” writes the AP, reporting on a statement issued by Toyota President Fujio Cho yesterday denying his company and GM have reached an agreement on shared hybrid technology. GM Chief Rick “Wagoner, who met with Cho and other officials over dinner last weekend while visiting the Aichi World Expo in Japan, discussed the importance of GM and Toyota ties as a legacy...” Said Cho: “We agreed we must make sure this pipeline of partnership grows stronger, not weaker.” More from the report: “Cho doesn’t expect anti-Japanese sentiments to flare up immediately in the United States, but Toyota officials have been watching closely for any signs, he said. Compared to two decades ago, Japanese automakers have opened more U.S. plants and are increasingly being seen as good corporate citizens that create jobs and good products for Americans.“