CHANTILLY, Va. – The Automotive Parts Remanufacturers Association (APRA) recently filed comments with the Federal Register on President Obama’s National Export Initiative Plan.
“As the ‘greenest’ of green industries, APRA members avoid the consumption of 85 to 95 percent of the energy that is required to produce a new part. The remanufacturing process avoids the CO2 emissions associated with the reprocessing of scrap into new parts and the environmental waste streams that result from the scrapping of failed parts,” stated APRA President Bill Gager.
APRA believes that the Federal government should take steps to lead the world by example domestically and help promote the export of remanufactured products. This support would provide opportunities to companies in the U.S. that manufacture cleaning and test equipment and special tooling as well as provide used parts and the services necessary to foster development of remanufacturing throughout the world, said the association.
According to APRA, the steps they should take are:
• Provide economic incentives through the use and tax treatment of core charges to direct failed parts to remanufacturers and keep scrap product from ending up in landfills;
• Remanufacturers and their suppliers should be supported in all foreign trade shows to reach as many potential customers as possible;
• Key countries such as Brazil should not deny the importation of remanufactured products because they want to classify them as used products;
• Countries should not deny the importation of used parts into their country because it hinders the development of their own remanufacturing industry, which in turn hinders environmental and societal benefits worldwide;
• Discourage the import of offshore copies from unfairly competing with remanufactured products;
• Provide a government grant to the Remanufacturing Center at The Rochester Institute of Technology in New York for the study of this industry so they may participate in a future “carbon credit” program;
• Provide a 20 percent tax credit for the purchase of equipment used in remanufacturing plants in the U.S. This would spur job creation in the industry.
Gager concluded, “As the greenest of green industries, our members are an engine of job creation. These steps outlined above would spur the necessary growth of the remanufacturing industry. If Congress is serious about real ‘job creation,’ then they should provide these incentives to the remanufacturing industry.”
