Interestingly a few establishments are offering Chinese cars as raffle prizes this Christmas. I noticed an SUV called the JAC S3 at the Caribe Express in POP the other day.
Quite a handsome car. But the strange thing I noticed, is that it was shod with Dunlops. So why aren't Chinese car manufacturers using Chinese tyres?
Lots of moving parts here.
The JAC S3 you saw is likely made in Mexico (next time there see if the first letter of the vehicle identification number VIN is a 3). JAC formed a joint venture with Giant Motors (owned by Carlos Slim) to produce the S3 in Mexico for export.
Sorry to be political here, but there is no way around it to provide an answer.
Key in on the recently re-negotiated NAFTA (now called USMCA) for a moment and that answer will start to crystallize.
The re-negotiated NAFTA came about as an indirect result of China trying to avoid tariffs. Mexican goods under that regimen came in mostly duty-free.
China saw that opportunity and formed a joint venture in Mexico and to backdoor tariff free into the US......
Trump's new agreement calls for a greater percentage content of the car to be sourced from members of the new agreement (USMCA)......thus effectively killing the move by China to enter the US tariff free and gain competitive edge over its German and Japanese rivals who produced and exported certain models to the US.
There is more........but to get to your answer..........
In order to try and boost content of the cars from US companies, part of that strategy was to use components from companies either made or headquartered in the US.
Dunlop is a division of Goodyear Tire and Rubber, based in the US......and which would give JAC claim to helping boosting American content of the vehicle.....and eventually gain entry into the lucrative US market.
The US saw what was happening in Mexico and declared that they (Mexico) were violating if not the actual Agreement, certainly the spirit surrounding why it was formed. Thus the new USMCA with stricter content rules amongst other changes.
And so we have another question looming as to why the Chinese have all of a sudden cozied up to the DR. Expect the Chinese to try the same under DR/CAFTA............with similar results.
As a side note, JAC is one of the first manufacturers to use "car in a box" assembly versus traditional assembly line techniques.
Respectfully,
Playacaribe2
Last edited: