Dollars death bed made
WSJ
August 8, 2001
GM Executive Says Dollar's Strength
Is 'Destroying' U.S. Manufacturing
By Joseph B. White
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Suffering from the dollar's continued strength, manufacturers have lobbied the White House for relief, a General Motors Corp. executive said.
So far, however, their pleas have had little effect.
GM Chief Financial Officer John Devine said Wednesday that the dollar's value against the euro and the yen has reached an "imbalance that's gone beyond a reasonable boundary."
"The strong dollar is destroying the manufacturing capability of this country," he said during a lunch with reporters at an auto-industry conference. The Bush administration has "begun" to listen to arguments from manufacturers for a weaker dollar, said Mr. Devine, who is also GM's vice chairman. But he added that "no one can mandate the value of the dollar."
Mr. Devine said the dollar's strength has helped Japanese and European auto makers undercut U.S. manufacturers' prices in the U.S., contributing to declining share for traditional Detroit Big Three brands this year and last year.
Mr. Devine said GM has stabilized its U.S. market share, despite a disappointing 26.6% share in July. Asked if GM can hit its financial targets with as little as 28% market share in the U.S., he responded, "Yes, absolutely."
On the matter of GM's talks to acquire Korea's troubled Daewoo Motor Sales Corp., Mr. Devine said the negotiations are still going on. "We honestly don't know what the timetable is yet."
"We know what we want to do, and what works for us," he said. But he said the discussions are complicated, and involve a political dimension because of the importance the Korean government attaches to a successful rescue of the auto maker.
Write to Joseph White at joseph.white@wsj.com
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