Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker, said it will export vehicles and auto parts worth $1.3 billion to China from the U.S. amid efforts by both countries to narrow the U.S. trade gap with Asia's second-biggest economy.
The exports over two years include 4,500 complete Buick, Cadillac and Hummer sport-utility vehicles and kits for assembly, or less than 2 percent of Detroit-based General Motors' annual China sales currently, the automaker said in a statement. Automakers Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG have said they'll sign similar agreements today.
The U.S. and Chinese governments are seeking to increase U.S. imports and reduce a Chinese trade surplus expected to rise by a quarter this year to $130 billion. U.S. automakers covet the market in China, which overtook Germany as the No. 3 vehicle market in 2003's first nine months, behind the U.S. and Japan.
U.S. lawmakers have been criticizing China's widening trade surplus. Boeing Co. and General Electric Co. today also will sign agreements in Washington to sell as much as $2.4 billion worth of aircraft and engines to China.
ChinaNews, a state-run news organization, said on its Web site Monday that a group of unidentified Chinese companies will travel to the U.S. next week to buy products including as many as 1,000 luxury cars.
Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford, the second-biggest automaker, will complete an accord this afternoon between its North American and Chinese units, after getting Chinese government approval to boost imports, spokesman Chris Vinyard said yesterday.
Stuttgart, Germany-based DaimlerChrysler, the world's fifth- largest automaker, has an agreement that will strengthen its ability to export U.S.-made models from its Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler units, spokesman Trevor Hale said yesterday. That agreement will be signed this evening at the company's Auburn Hills, Michigan, U.S. headquarters complex.
Sales of cars, trucks and other vehicles in China rose 30 percent to 3.11 million in this year's first nine months from the same period of 2002, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, more than Germany. General Motors estimates the nation's total will rise 29 percent to 4.4 million for all of 2003.
China ranks behind Japan among Asia's economies.
