R ecently chief executives of General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler along with senior U.S. executives from Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Nissan, Honda, BMW and Daimler representing both American and foreign auto- makers went to the White House to meet with President Trump and push for a weakening of U.S. fuel efficiency stan- dards through 2025. While this meeting was not about NAFTA, it goes without saying that many of the automakers present have called NAFTA a success. Allowing automakers to allocate produc- tion throughout North America, making production more competitive with Asia and Europe and increasing auto pro- duction over the past two decades. President Trump used much of the hour-long meeting with chief executives of the auto industry to focus new attacks on NAFTA saying that he wants automakers to build more vehicles in the United States and export more vehicles out of the country to foreign markets . Most chief executives in the auto industry say that extreme changes to NAFTA may prompt some companies to move production out of the United States al together. We are sure that there is more to come on NAFTA and U.S. fuel efficiency standards as automakers want the White House and California to reach an agreement on maintain- ing national standards.
E ven with rising gasoline prices, U.S. retail sales increased slightly in April with analysts still expecting consumer spending to accelerate in the second quarter. The Commerce Department released that retail sales rose 0.3 percent in April with a 4.7 percent increase from a year ago which was in line with expectations. Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales rose 0.4 percent last month after increasing 0.5 percent increase in March. These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product.
Sales growth is good news as consumer spending was down in the first quarter and was at its slowest rate in five years.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • MAY 2018
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