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Automakers Disappointed Over Signing of Kyoto Protocol

13 November 1998

Automakers Disappointed Over Signing of Kyoto Protocol

    WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 -- The American Automobile Manufacturers
Association issued the following:

    The American Automobile Manufacturers Association (AAMA) and its members
-- Chrysler, Ford and General Motors -- fully share the concerns expressed by
members of Congress of both Parties who had urged the President not to sign
the Kyoto Protocol at this time.
    The Clinton Administration acknowledges that the Protocol is a "work in
progress," does not meet requirements set last year unanimously by the Senate
in S. Res. 98 for signing the Protocol, and is not ready to be submitted to
the Senate for approval.
    We believe that if the Protocol is not ready to submit, it is not ready to
sign.
    Important elements of the Protocol, such as the flexibility mechanisms,
are still being negotiated, and these negotiations are likely to continue for
some time. We believe that the Protocol should not have been signed until
these elements were successfully completed. Signing an incomplete Protocol
will not advance the position of the U.S. in those negotiations in any
meaningful way and, in fact, will compromise that position.

    AAMA is the trade association whose members are Chrysler Corporation
, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corporation
. Visit AAMA's site on the World Wide Web at http://www.aama.com.