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European Report
No Yankee Cars: The Anti-American Road Show
By Paul Belien
Tuesday, November 29, 2005Car dealers importing American cars in Belgium are on the brink of bankruptcy. For the past three months the Belgian government has been refusing to deliver the required safety certificates for the cars. Since 1 September companies importing non-European cars must be able to show European certificates guaranteeing the safety of the cars.
The Belgian authorities are making no problems for Japanese, Korean or other non-American cars, but are refusing to give safety certificates for Dodges, GMCs, Chevrolets, Chryslers, Lincolns and other American car brands. Belgian dealers can import the cars via Germany, where the certificates are delivered without any fuss, but this costs them up to an additional 3,000 euros per car – a surplus which they do not like to inflict on their customers.
There are about 20 car dealers in Belgium selling some 5,000 American cars per year. Since September, however, they have not been able to sell a single American SUV, jeep, pickup truck, or other "big American." According to Jos Meulemans of Geronimo Automobiles in Blankenberge, one of the largest importers of American cars in Belgium, the American cars are being singled out because their gas consumption or their appearance "do not conform to the European – read: Green – culture." He says the ministry is pestering the importers of American cars by not answering their requests for information and by claiming that the American safety belts are below standard.
One car dealer, who was interviewed last Friday in Antwerp’s daily newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen, said he is facing bankruptcy as he has not sold a single car in weeks. In the past it took only one week to get an American car cleared, but since September it has become impossible. The dealer wishes to remain anonimous "as he fears more harassment."
Renaat Landuyt, the Socialist Belgian minister of Mobility, told the paper: "It is a matter of road safety. I will make no concessions." Landuyt maintained that the fact that his administration is slow "proves that my people take their job seriously. One cannot be too cautious in matters regarding safety."
Paul Belien is the editor of the Flemish quarterly Secessie and the editor-in-chief of The Brussels Journal. He is a columnist at the Flemish weekly Pallieterke and at the Flemish monthly Doorbraak and a regular contributor to the Flemish conservative monthly Nucleus, which he co-founded in 1990. Paul can be reached at: letters@canadafreepress.com
