Rebates cushion Canada's car industry from retaliatory tariffs

TorontoCANADIAN government customs provisions are expected to soften the blow on the country's powerful automotive industry from retaliatory tariffs on US steel, according to trade lawyers and industry leaders bracing for higher costs. They could protect the car industry's supply contracts covering raw materials and parts, which often cross borders several times before a vehicle is finished. Without drawbacks, Mr Goldman said, the Canadian retaliation would have "very significantly and very quickly" hurt the industry. Some 85 per cent of vehicles built in Canada in 2016 were exported, meaning that duty relief programmes could refund roughly 85 per cent of retaliatory tariffs paid by carmakers. Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, said that some companies that make stainless steel parts or hardened steel tools in Canada could benefit.

Brexit fears putting 850,000 automotive jobs at risk, warns car industry

Investment in Britain's car industry has halved, warns the sector, urging the PM to stick with the benefits of the single market. More than 850,000 jobs directly and indirectly employed in the sector are at risk because of Brexit, the trade body warned, and called on the government to stick with the benefits of the single market. "The current position, with conflicting messages and red lines, goes directly against the interests of the UK automotive sector which has thrived on single market and customs union membership." "Government must rethink its position on the customs union." Advertisement"There is no Brexit dividend for our industry, particularly in what is an increasingly hostile and protectionist global trading environment.

The car industry needs to embrace open source

As it stated in One of the ways that they are already doing this is in their use of open source components. This software is written and maintained by the open source community and made available for reuse by others so long as they follow their licenses. Open source components are essentially the building blocks of software, comprising between 60-80 percent of the code base in modern applications. When coding with open source, developers need to ensure that they are not using components with known vulnerabilities. If automakers are going to successfully utilize open source components, they are going to have to play by the rules.

collected by :Catlin Logan