General Motors to export over $800 million of cars, parts to China

General Motors Corp said it would export more than $800 million worth of US-built Buick sport utility and other vehicles and components to China starting in 2008 in its second export agreement with China this year.
The Detroit automaker signed the multi-year deal with Shanghai General Motors, one of its Chinese joint ventures, on Monday in Washington D.C., it said in a statement. The agreement comes as the United Auto Workers union called the first national strike against GM since 1970 on Monday after a 10-week round of contract talks stalled, sending more than 73,000 factory workers to picket lines.
The contract talks are seen as crucial to GM's survival as it restructures its loss-making US operations and seeks to cut itself free from a health-care obligation of over $50 billion.