China's mileage standards target foreign firms? You don't say!

BUSINESS DAY: "China's Mileage Mandate: Proposed Rules Said to Be Even Stricter Than in the U.S.," by Keith Bradsher, New York Times, 28 May 2009.

Smaller cars that sip fuel are now subject to a one percent sales tax in China, but gas guzzling trucks and SUVs get a 40% tax. Guess which markets in China the U.S. firms dominate?

China was self-sufficient on oil as late as 1995. It now imports 60 percent, just like the U.S. The bulk comes from unstable regions and the lanes between those regions and China are dominated by the U.S. Navy.

Imagine if the situation were reversed.

Experts say that American and European firms will simply adjust, because the market is too crucial to their futures.

This is how the New Core sets the new rules on transportation.