World's Major Automakers Urge Action on Global Regulatory Harmonization
2 March 1998
World's Major Automakers Urge Action on Global Regulatory HarmonizationGENEVA, 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