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4 » LENSES October 2018 | AutoData André Barros, Leandro Alves, Márcio Stéfani, Marcos Rozen collaborated OPPORTUNISM Some people say, in the automotive sector, that the Argentine government’s tough game with the IMF, staging resistance to using the tools of, let’s say, economic stabilization linked to the loan granting to take the country out of insolvency, a classic game from them that disrupted negotiations with Brazil in several situations. A recent example involves negotiations on flex tariff: they want to keep it at US$ 1.50 for US$ 1 while the Brazilian position, as a result of previous agreements, is to move towards free trade. And they also require, in the definitive project of the Brazilian Rota 2030 program, a special line of financing to be included for vehicles produced... in Argentina. OPPORTUNISM 2 There is more. In order to extend the bilateral agreement with Brazil, Argentina wants to include, for example, the accounting of the investments made (in Argentina) by the vehicle manufacturers in the R&D criteria of Rota 2030. The country also wants that the vehicles they produce have specific money in the... BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank). These demands flourish in the shadow of payment default that Argentinean companies have given to Brazilian manufacturers and that was paid by the SCE system, a financial insurance created by the Brazilian government, which now charges the debt in court. People in the automotive sector remember that, in the past, Brazil negotiated a vehicle quotas agreement with Mexico and that Argentina only requested the extension of its results to Mercosur after the negotiations... were concluded. OPPORTUNISM 3 These people in the automotive industry are convinced that the Brazilian Northeast and Midwest regimes, due to their characteristics of regional development mechanisms, should not be included in sectoral policies. He believes that R&D incentives are fundamental to prevent the loss of intellectual capital in this area, and that the Rota program is essential in the face of the competition represented by China and the United States - in Brazil, there is a demand of its own that resembles countries with similar characteristics, such as South Africa and India. FOR TWELVE MONTHS The president of Volkswagen, Pablo Di Si, does not always hide what is on his mind. He was dissatisfied for staying behind Fiat in the sales result of August: “I’m competitive, I don’t like to lose”, he admitted. “The Italians were in the second position, it’s true, but at what condition? I’m not selling a car at a bargain price”. Di Si said that there were a lot of vehicles sold by Fiat with generous discounts: “They did it for a month, it worked, but nobody has the condition to do it for twelve months”. BELIEVER THING Press offices of the contemporary times distribute their press releases as if they were windblown dust particles, those that enter through the window gaps and lodge in the folds of the collars. How to understand that one of these sends a material named Bible Lessons for Success at Work: How Can Bible Teachings Help You Overcome All the Professional Challenges for a publishing house specialized in economy of the automotive industry? The release says (imagine) that the authors “have been able to extract the best of from the Bible for the business world, (…) with tips for every week of the year”. BELIEVER THING 2 It’s easy to understand: this press office does not have the slightest criteria in distributing its customers’ press releases - to better understand it: for their owners, the clients are all the same. And this is a very irresponsible way of treating customers. I have learned that each client deserves specific attention, from start to finish, and that their message has to be sent to whoever gives editorial value to it. Something like this: a Bible-based issue should not be sent to journalists specialized in automotive economy - especially when this publishing house, like AutoData, follows the principles of secularism. In other words: this press office, which must believe in the uselessness of its own work, certainly thinks little about its clients.