Jan 16 2015
According to the economist “ Australian car buyers "muscling in" on the Japanese used car market could "shake up" the New Zealand industry and see prices accelerate. It is really different and far from “game changer “ that the vehicle industries that the japenese used imports to Austrailia is removed from tariffs. There is a free Trade Agreement between Japan and Austrailia which came with a round tariif cuts, today. Used car import remains at A$12,000 (NZ$ 12,600) as tariff on new cars will be removed. Tariffs on new car imports will eventually be removed as part of the agreement, but an A$12,000 (NZ$12,600) one on used car imports remains.
By 2017, Tthese tariffs are widely expected to be cut for Ford, Toyota and Holden shift Australian production overseas the Australian market was fully liberalised, it could demand as many as 315,000 used imports from Japan - double the largest current importer, Russia. Said by Infometrics senior This "back of the envelope" calculation was based on New Zealand's own experience when the car market was gradually freed up between the late 1980s and 1998.
If they buy in a similar manner to New Zealand car buyers they have the potential to really shake up the market there.According to Patterson the number of used imports currently entering Australia was very small, but estimated this would rise to 315,000 with the removal of the tariff and we would expect used car prices in Australia to also experience significant declines once the A$12,000 used import tariff is removed."he said "If the yen is extremely weak when the tariffs are removed it's not going to really matter too much for New Zealand car buyers because we'll still be getting them cheaper even if prices in Japan have been pushed up."But if the Japanese yen had strengthened by that stage and there was already some upward pressure on prices then this would really add to it.
It's a bad situation for a used car salesman in New Zealand. Whether it's really bad or not depends on other factors, but at the end of the day it's still a negative for them in terms of pricing." Chief executive of Motor Vehicle Industry Association David Vinsen said it was unlikely to be a floodgate situation whereby Australia all of a sudden imported 315,000 cars. He told that Currently about 1 million new vehicles were sold in Australia out of which 800,000 were imported.Of those, no more than 10,000 were used imports, so Australian buyers would eventually be competing for the same Japanese stock as New Zealand.
"The reality is that we think it's unlikely at this stage that the Australian Government will move quickly to deregulate the importation of used vehicles into Australia. The initial changes will relate to higher- end vehicles are not in compettition for demand with New Zealand. Vinsen also said that the but IMVIA's own research showed that would not become the case in Australia as most mainstream vehicles here came from Japan.He said "If Australia comes into the picture that would just be an added demand pressure, but it's not going to be a game-changer. It's unlikely to be a floodgate situation."
