TPT March 2017

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start making compact cars at a facility jointly operated with
Nissan Motor Co in Aguascalientes next year.
› If Mr Trump does succeed in penalising the German
carmakers, they will be affected unequally. Bloomberg’s
Ms Behrmann and Mr Rauwald noted that BMW’s annual
capacity of 150,000 deliveries out of Mexico is a small share
of its two million car sales last year. Volkswagen’s Audi luxury
unit is the most vulnerable to threats of import duties because
it, too, makes about 150,000 vehicles in Mexico annually but
has no US facilities “that it could use as a bargaining chip.”
Perhaps the most salient datum of all: the US is the second-
largest export market for German automakers.
› While carmakers have particular issues with the new
occupant of the White House, German companies
generally are charting their American paths without evident
concern about the changeover. As noted by Natascha Divac
of the Wall Street Journal, German firms in several sectors
– energised by low interest rates and rebounding markets –
are boosting their stateside expansion plans and ramping up
their dealmaking, in which Mr Trump famously claims unique
expertise.
On the day before the inaugural Ms Divac wrote, from
Frankfurt, “German companies are accelerating their
expansion in the US, undaunted by President-elect Donald
Trump’s threats to limit international trade and uncertainty
surrounding his future stance on foreign takeovers.” (“German
Companies on a Tear in US,” 19 January)
Oi l and gas
A 19-million-acre Alaskan wildlife refuge,
coveted for its untapped oil, attracts new
attention. But that may be all
“Far above the Arctic Circle, one of the longest-running
controversies in US oil drilling is about to reignite.”
Markets reporter Alex Nussbaum of Bloomberg Businessweek
was referring to the expected push by Republicans, buoyed
by the election of President Donald Trump, to allow oil
exploration in the US Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
The future of the frigid wilderness in northeastern Alaska,
placed off-limits by Congress in 1980, has been a source
of pitched battle between drillers and conservationists for
decades. Given Mr Trump’s pledge to raise US energy
production, and with his party in control of Congress, the
outlook for commercial development of the refuge is looking
very much better. But, even apart from unremitting opposition
from conservationists, factors identified by Mr Nussbaum
could curb enthusiasm for exploiting the reserve any time
soon. (“Big Oil May Finally Get to Drill in the Arctic – But Is It
Worth It?,” 20 January)
For one, he noted, while the US government estimates that
the area could hold 12 billion barrels of crude, placing it
among the biggest untapped oilfields in the nation, “no one’s