November 16, 2001	Friday	Shaba'an 29, 1422

TOKYO, Nov 15: Nissan Motor Co, Japan’s second-largest automaker, said on Thursday it expected Britain to join the European single currency in the medium term.

Earlier this year Nissan gave the British auto industry a sorely needed boost when it decided to build key model, the Micra subcompact, at its plant in Sunderland in northeast England.

Like many other European automakers, restructuring Nissan has been hit hard by the pound’s strength against the euro and had warned that the Micra might be shifted to a plant owned by partner French automaker Renault SA.

The automaker, however, has given no assurances that other key vehicles, such as the replacement for the Almera sedan would continue to be built at Sunderland, which employs around 4,500 people.

On the sidelines of a euro symposium in Tokyo, Thierry Moulonguet, Nissan’s Chief Financial Officer told Reuters in a brief interview that like the Micra, the decision on the Almera replacement would be considered on the merits of its case.

But he added: It is clear that we have the medium-term expectation that the pound will join the euro.

Nissan only made the decision to invest 235 million pounds ($338.8 million) in Sunderland for the new Micra after gaining a 40 million pound aid package from the British government which was approved by the European Commission.

The decision followed high-profile closures of British plants by Ford Motor Co and General Motors Corp, both of which cited the currency problem as a factor in the closures.

At the time, there was much speculation from British media that Prime Minister Tony Blair had given Nissan some sort of assurance on the government’s stance towards the euro a charge that Blair denied.

Moulonguet said a move by Britain to join the euro would only be part of the normal development of the European community.

This is more or less, I would say, the kind of direction given by the foreign minister. The only question which seems to remain open is the timing, he said.

Britain’s government has long said that it favours joining the euro if Britain meets its self-imposed economic tests and voters approve it in a referendum.

Moulonguet also said Nissan did not need to make a decision on the Almera replacement yet and that Sunderland had many factors working in its favour, including high productivity levels and a good workforce.

Nissan’s chief executive Carlos Ghosn, also speaking at the symposium, said fluctuations in euro/yen and euro/pound had cost the automaker $176 million over the past two years.

Ghosn said the advent of the euro notes and coins on January 1, 2002 would increase investment in euro zone countries and allow companies to speed up decision making in Europe.

Nissan is not the only Japanese automaker to complain about the pound’s strength against the euro. Toyota Motor Corp executives in the past have also called on the British government to make its position clearer.—Reuters