Domestic car producers see imports increase due to diminishing excise duties

The share of cars produced in Poland is decreasing compared to imported ones. Out of the 278,000 new cars sold in the first half of 2000 only 62% of them were produced in Poland which is a 26% decrease over last year. Decreasing excise duties are slowly stifling the domestic car industry. Last year 114,000 cars were imported which is a 200% increase compared to the same period six years ago. "The government seems to be punishing us for investing millions of Deutsche marks in Gliwice and protects importers instead of producers," said General Motors Poland spokesman Zbigniew Lazar. Companies seem not to be horrified by this situation because of increasing exports and do not plan any layoffs. "We are too long here to be scared by such, let's hope temporary, problems so we do not plan to decrease employment," said Maciej Brzozowski from Fiat Polska. (Prawo i Gospodarka, page 1, 2) M.M.