Toyota hopes for laxer rules

Toyota hopes for laxer rules

Agence France-Presse, Tokyo

Senior executives from Japan's top automaker Toyota Motor said
Tuesday tight regulations on the automobile business in China
will not slow its drive into the booming market although they
hope for some relaxation of the rules.

"There is a view that this way of thinking could contradict
international rules as China is in the WTO," Toyota president
Fujio Cho said when asked about the reported Chinese policy of
giving a bigger market share to Chinese carmakers.

"If it is true ... we have to develop new strategies" to deal
with Beijing's plan, he told a news conference while noting he
did not know about a reported "draft" of China's new auto policy.

China joined the World Trade Organization in December 2001.

Cho nonetheless added "there is no question that we will
combine all our resources" to expand Toyota's business in China.

Toyota vice president Yoshio Ishizaka noted that Beijing is
banning joint ventures between Chinese and foreign companies from
selling imported cars through their sales channels.

"We have to obey this rule at the moment ... from an
international viewpoint, however, I think this will be changed in
the future," Ishizaka said.

He argued customers hoped for "one-stop shopping" rather than
going to different dealers depending on whether the cars were
domestically-built models or imports.

At the press conference marking the mid-point of the year,
Toyota raised its global sales target for 2003 by 60,000 units
from the December projection to 5.85 million units, up six
percent from 2002.

"Overseas sales will hit a record high of 4.12 million units
thanks to growth in North America, Europe and Asia," Cho said.

The company estimated global production at 6.0 million units,
up by 130,000 from the earlier projection and up six percent from
the previous year.

"The changes stemmed mostly from higher estimates in China and
Southeast Asian nations such as Thailand," a Toyota spokesman
said.