World's Major Automakers Urge Action on Global Regulatory Harmonization
2 March 1998
World's Major Automakers Urge Action on Global Regulatory Harmonization
GENEVA, March 2 -- The world's leading automakers,
representing European, Japanese and U.S. manufacturers, urge their governments
to continue and expand their efforts to harmonize automotive safety and
emissions regulations. The European Automobile Manufacturers Association
(ACEA), Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) and the American
Automobile Manufacturers Association (AAMA) believe that the global
harmonization of regulations will provide substantial benefits to customers
and drivers around the world.
Currently, a variety of safety and emissions regulations are developed on
a national or regional basis. Though they all aim at the same result -- to
protect drivers, passengers and the environment -- the regulations are set
differently. This obliges auto manufacturers to develop, design and
manufacture various vehicles and engines following different regulations,
depending on the region where the vehicle will be registered. Globally, this
does not deliver incremental benefit to the users, but duplicates
substantially the engineering and manufacturing complexity of the vehicles,
thereby increasing unnecessarily the costs to the consumer.
This year, there are several new developments which offer encouragement to
advancing the objectives of global automotive regulatory harmonization.
First, negotiations by our respective governments are well advanced to
create a new Agreement on Global Standards within the United Nation's ECE
Working Party 29 to allow all countries to participate in the process of
international regulatory harmonization and mutual recognition of
certification. We urge our governments to complete these negotiations in the
first half of 1998 in order to allow individual Countries to sign a new
Agreement on Global Standards this year.
Second, it is noteworthy that the European Union has already acceded and
Japan is in the process of acceding to the 1958 Agreement, which established
the basis for the work on automotive standards harmonization and mutual
recognition which has been accomplished to date in U.N. Working Party 29. In
the case of Japan, this action will require modifications to that country's
Road Vehicle Act which is currently underway.
Third, the U.S. and European industries have now submitted petitions to
their respective regulatory agencies to seek determinations of functional
equivalence on a number of safety standards. These initiatives could serve as
precursors to fully harmonized standards and certification procedures. We
urge these governments to complete the consideration of these petitions in
order to facilitate and expand the work being conducted by industry in this
area.
Finally, the three automotive industry associations expressed their
support for each of these activities and recommend that each of their
respective governments recommit themselves to the goals of the International
Harmonized Research Agenda (IHRA) to intensify their mutual cooperation and,
where possible, jointly develop new automotive regulations and safety
procedures.
ACEA is the professional body representing the interests and combined
skills of fourteen European car, truck and bus manufacturers (BMW AG, DAF NV
Fiat Auto S.p.A., Ford of Europe Inc., General Motors Europe AG, MAN
Nutzfahrzeuge AG, Daimler-Benz AG, Porsche AG, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault
SA, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd., Scania AB, Volkswagen AG, Volvo AB) at
European level and throughout the world.
JAMA is the trade association for major Japanese automobile manufacturers
Its members include Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd., Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., Hino
Motors, Ltd., Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Isuzu Motors Limited, Kawasaki Heavy
Industries, Ltd., Mazda Motor Corporation, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation,
Nissan Diesel Motor Co., Ltd., Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Suzuki Motor
Corporation, Toyota Motor Corporation, and Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. Visit
JAMA's site on the World Wide Web at http://www.japanauto.com.
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.
SOURCE American Automobile Manufacturers Association; European Automobile
