Autonomous State : The Struggle for a Canadian Car Industry From OPEC to Free Trade

Autonomous State provides the first detailed examination of the Canadian auto industry, the country’s most important economic sector, in the post-war period. In this engrossing book, Dimitry Anastakis chronicles the industry’s evolution from the 1973 OPEC embargo to the 1989 Canada–US Free Trade Agreement and looks at its effects on public policy, diplomacy, business enterprise, workers, consumers, and firms. Using an immense array of archival sources, and interviews with some of the key actors in the events, Anastakis examines a fascinating array of topics in recent auto industry and Canadian business and economic history: the impact of new safety, emissions, and fuel economy regulations on the Canadian sector and consumers, the first Chrysler bailout of 1980, the curious life and death of the 1965 Canada-US auto pact, the ‘invasion’ of Japanese imports and transplant operations, and the end of aggressive auto policy-making with the coming of free trade. More than just an examination of the auto industry, the book provides a rethinking of Canada’s tumultuous post-OPEC political and economic evolution, helping to explain the current tribulations of the global auto sector and Canada’s place within it. Contents 5 Acknowledgments 7 Abbreviations Used in Text 11 List of Tables 15 List of Illustrations 17 Map: Automotive assembly and major parts facilities in Canada since 1945 18 Introduction: The Ripples of 1973 19 1. Industrial Revolutions: A New Automotive Landscape Emerges 36 2. The New Big Three: Canadian Safety, Emissions, and Fuel Economy in a Continental Industry 70 3. Fair Share: The Battle over ‘Domestic’ Automotive Investment in North America 107 4. Nadir: Saving Chrysler and Debating State Intervention in the Auto Sector 147 5. Integration’s Bounty, Integration’s Bounds: The Unusual Life of the Auto Pact 183 6. Schism: The Canadian UAW and the End of Auto Worker Internationalism 228 7. Transplant: ‘Foreign’ Production, Imports, and the Tumultuous Arrival of the Japanese 270 8. Rebirth or Requiem? Duty Remissions, Free Trade, and the Death of the Auto Pact 312 Conclusion One in Six: The Ratio of Survival 353 Appendix A. The Evolution of Canadian Automotive Tariffs since 1936 / Canadian Duty- Remission/Tariff Plans in the Auto Sector 379 Appendix B. Text of the Automotive Products Trade Agreement, 1965 / Sample Letter of Undertaking 381 Appendix C. Memorandum of Understanding between Honda Canada and the Canadian Government, May 1984 390 Appendix D. Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, 1 January 1989, Chapter 10, Trade in Automotive Goods 393 Appendix E. Automotive Statistics, 1960–99 398 Notes 403 Bibliography 505 Index 543