{"id":15045,"date":"2018-04-23T17:04:45","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T16:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15045"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:47","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:47","slug":"michigan-uk-car-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15045","title":{"rendered":"Heed Unite EV strategy call"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite has cautiously welcomed an agreement between the UK and Michigan to collaborate on autonomous cars and other developments in road transport, warning that it should not be interpreted as a precursor to a beneficial post-Brexit trade deal with the US.<\/p>\n

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A memorandum of understanding was signed today (April 23) between Michigan governor Rick Snyder and UK business minister Richard Harrington pledging collaboration on the future of automotive<\/a> technology.<\/p>\n

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Three quarters of US automotive research and development occurs in Michigan, which is home to the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s car manufacturing capital Detroit.<\/p>\n

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“Great opportunity”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In an interview with Politico<\/em><\/a>, Snyder said the agreement was a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bgreat opportunity\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 in terms of \u00e2\u20ac\u015blooking at the future of autonomous vehicles, mobility and the supply chain\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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In Michigan, Snyder explained, Brexit is viewed as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsomething where the UK most likely will be turning to America, because of the historical relationships that exist\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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Snyder\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comments will be gratefully received by Theresa May\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0 government, which has been keen to talk up the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s close links to the US during a time when the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relationship with the EU \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biggest trading partner \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is increasingly uncertain.<\/p>\n

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However, Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke urged caution.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile this memorandum of understanding maybe seen as a positive development, the government cannot be allowed to wave the agreement about as a future indicator of Britain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s post-Brexit<\/a> relationship with the USA,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Burke said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSigning a massive trade deal with the Trump administration is something completely different to a friendly agreement to collaborate over electric vehicles between the UK and a single US state.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNor can this memorandum be used by the government to distract from its woeful progress in securing a deal with the EU that protects the cross border trade links between the UK and the continent that are absolutely vital to the health of our world class automotive industry.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
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Dialogue ‘vital’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Burke added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt may well be helpful to have dialogue with the state of Michigan, which is at the heart of the US car industry. Unite sees it as vital we have dialogue with unions in the auto industry including Germany, France and the USA.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is interesting to see that the UK government is taking an interest in electric vehicles, but if the government is serious about securing the future of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s automotive industry, they will heed the call in Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new strategy document<\/a> for massive infrastructure and investment for the wide scale production of electric vehicles.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite has cautiously welcomed an agreement between the UK and Michigan to collaborate on autonomous cars and other developments in road transport, warning that it should not be interpreted as a precursor to a beneficial post-Brexit trade deal with the US.   A memorandum of understanding was signed today (April 23) between Michigan governor Rick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[486,386,854],"wps_subtitle":"Caution urged over Michigan-UK car agreement","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15045"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15045"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26252,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15045\/revisions\/26252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}