Chapter 592

While Peterson was lobbying trade officials in Washington with his own contacts, Karim led his partners back to the UK. Their strategy was basically similar to Peterson's, that is, lobbying sachelnenge in the name of the banking association to fight back against German protectionism.

Under the persuasion of Karim, several banks that participated in the merger and acquisition of Volkswagen agreed to give it a try. They jointly wrote an open letter to the British Chancellor of the exchequer, writing all their experiences in Germany these days in the letter. At the same time, they also published the open letter in the mainstream media in the UK.

Soon, this letter received a warm response from many British automobile companies. In recent years, Volkswagen in Germany has made almost all British automobile manufacturers have no power to fight back. British car manufacturers have long been very dissatisfied with the best-selling German cars in the British market. Now that the Bankers Association has taken the initiative to point out this, as the direct victims of the automobile industry, everyone has joined in and started to denounce Volkswagen and the German government.

Karim began to visit these automobile companies by taking advantage of this trend, and Karim promised to provide funds to help them with their turnover. However, these automobile manufacturing companies are generally in a state of loss now. Karim's funds have a fatal temptation to them, so they soon became Karim's supporters.

With the support of the industry, Karim is more confident of the Thatcher government's lobbying. After several celebrities in the British automobile industry have questioned Germany's Volkswagen protection law, No. 10 Downing Street has finally made a response. The British Chancellor of the exchequer will challenge the federal government of Germany at the European Community Economic Conference one month later.

As soon as the news came out, Karim's partners were finally relieved. Because once this matter is submitted to the EC Trade Commission, it means that the German government must explain its trade protection policy《 At last, Volkswagen Corporation protection law has a bargaining opportunity.

The initial success of Karim's action has relieved Wolfgang's pressure on Porsche. Relying on his weak shareholding advantage, Wolfgang joined other shareholders of the Porsche family to launch a counterattack against the Piech family. And Piech also showed no weakness, in Wolfgang did not get absolute grasp before, Piech always have the opportunity. Moreover, Piech has always believed that the money for Wolfgang's acquisition of shares was borrowed from foreign banks at high interest rates, and the Porsche family will not last long.

Wolfgang is not a rich second generation who knows nothing. His family has been running this business for 100 years. Wolfgang has been with his father from small to large, watching him deal with the trivial things in the business. Wolfgang is very clear about the harm of the equity dispute to an entity, so when he and Piech are still in dispute, Wolfgang first courted the union of Porsche.

Wolfgang soon put forward his first proposal on the board of directors of Porsche, which is to improve the welfare of employees of the company. As soon as the news came out, the union representatives of the company finally had some good feelings for Wolfgang.

Piech had no reason to be the villain in the eyes of the workers, so the Porsche family and the Piech family, who had been in the same situation, unanimously approved Wolfgang's first proposal, that is, to use 10% of the annual surplus profit as a bonus to the workers. The bonus covers almost all the front-line workers in the Porsche factory, and the Porsche trade union responded quickly. They thank Wolfgang for his understanding of the workers.

Wolfgang's move does not dare to let the trade union fully support him, at least he is no longer known as the traitor of the German automobile industry. At this time, an unexpected thing made the whole German automobile industry into a panic.

"Here's the latest news. U.S. trade representative Clayton, together with the U.S. Department of Commerce, submitted a trade arbitration to GATT one hour ago, accusing the German government's Volkswagen Corporation protection act of violating free trade and GATT's relevant provisions. At the same time, the US Department of Commerce will also investigate the dumping of German cars in the US market... "

Just as most Germans begin to enjoy the most relaxing dinner of the day, a financial news on TV makes many people unable to eat. Without warning, the US government began to impose trade sanctions on German cars. What happened? Did we offend the Americans there?

After almost reading the news, the German economic and trade department immediately contacted the trade representative office and the Ministry of Commerce of the United States to ask the other party what is the basis for doing so.

"According to the law, is it an act of complying with the GATT Convention for our enterprises to resist their investment in your country? Can we say that if only the trade surplus between Germany and the United States is allowed, the trade surplus between the United States and Germany cannot be allowed? The U.S. government will never accept unfair treatment of its own enterprises. We need to take retaliatory measures... "Clayton strongly expressed his dissatisfaction to the German side, and then the U.S. Secretary of Commerce announced a more fatal news. According to the preliminary ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court, the investment of Columbia bank in Germany was unfairly treated, In view of Germany's current attitude, we will take retaliatory tariff on German auto products, with the tax rate increased by 30%.

In this way, a cruel trade war unfolded in silence. Almost overnight, all of Germany's auto products were affected. The Trade Department of Germany has a headache about this, but the German government can not give up the Volkswagen Corporation Protection Act.

If it is said that the American sanctions are a catastrophe to the German automobile industry, then the British accusations are more or less groundless and add fuel to the fire. The British Chancellor of the exchequer soon mentioned the "Volkswagen Corporation Protection Act" at the EC economic conference, and also mentioned that his bank suffered unreasonable obstruction and unfair treatment from the German automobile industry when investing in the Porsche automobile company.

"If there is still discrimination against foreign capital in the German market, I can't think of any face for Germany, which is quite enthusiastic about European integration, to sit with us and talk about the issue of the unified market." The British Chancellor of the exchequer asked the German Chancellor of the exchequer at the meeting.