European, American world travellers, and Asian automobile importers
Last fall I was ready to write up a little article about the lack of glamorous in business travel. Well, then I got busy, put writing on hold, got to travel to Europe for a couple of weeks of work, and found the idea had shelved itself but quickly and quietly.
Having said that, check out Gelato baby's account of a 36 hour trip home from Helsinki with an emergency stop in Glasgow to see how quickly things can go sour. It's a very amusing article.
It also reveals how quickly travel can go wrong. All you need is one big missed flight to throw you for a loop.
Which segues to the fact that it's been almost a year since my last vacation. It's about time to start planning the next one.
This time it's going to be the West Coast. I'm not done going through the list of friends who have put down roots out there, but at the moment it's looking like I'll be able to see 15 or more people in 7 cities over a 10 day period. Wait, I just thought of another three. Make it possbily 18 people.
We'll see who's free.
This will, of course be an epic road trip.
I won't be taking my car. Instead I'll be skipping across the country by plane, and then taking a rental down the coast. Should be fun.
My rental will probably be an "American" car, as contrasted with my "Japanese" Mazda.
It's funny how people identify cars by their brand. It makes perfect sense, until you start to think about it. Mazda is partially owned by Ford. As a result, many of the metal parts are stamped FOMOCO. One of my friends told me the seat belt assembly is built by a Canadian factory. I imagine there are components from more than just Canada, US and Japan too.
So is it truly a Japanese car? From the quality angle, it sure is. From the 'provenance of its contents', it's more Canadian than anything - that is, a cosmopolitan "citizen of the world".
Except that it still apparently included a 6.1% import duty in its cost. Ouch.
While doing some research to determine if the rate is in fact 6.1% - seems like it is - I found this very interesting study prepared by Industry Canada.
It talks about the effect of opening an automobile free trade agreement with Korea. Apparently the economic analysis shows that Koreans would increase there market share in Canada while Canada would double the number of cars it sells in Korea.
Of course, that would be an increase from 57 to 106 cars. I re-read that carefully to make sure I saw the number correctly.
We apparently sell more cars to Guam than Korea.
Guam?
Guam.
Amazing.
Everyone loves Guam. The name of that nation just sounds fun. And Guam loves Canadian cars more than Koreans do.
A funny side effect of the WTO - Canada used to only charge the 6.1% duty for cars produced by non-North American companies. North American companies with subsidiaries overseas, like Saab, were exempt. The WTO said that's not fair, and it wasn't
Canada could either repeal the 6.1% duty, or nail all cars produced outside with the duty.
Faced with constant turmoil from any negative action against domestic automobile production, Canada applied the 6.1% against all 'foreign' cars.
If I end up getting something like a Mazda 6 as my rental car I guarantee you that I will break out in a fit of gleeful laughter when I they hand me the keys.