The Paris newspaper Le Monde reported today that the Kaiser-Frazer company of Haifa had started suit against Regie Renault, the partly Government-owned French auto firm, for $1,800,000 for breach of contract.
The French firm canceled a contract for assembly of its small cars at the Haifa plant last October, asserting at the time that small sales and high production costs had made the agreement with the Haifa company unprofitable.
Kaiser-Frazer officials in Israel charged that Renault had bowed to Arab boycott pressure, which officials of the company denied, and threatened a damage suit. Subsequently, talks were held between Kaiser-Frazer and Renault officials pointing toward a possibility of some kind of a settlement and the Haifa firm indicated it had dropped at least temporarily plans for a suit.
The Kaiser-Frazer plant was forced to lay off many workers because of a drop in production following cancelation of the Renewal contract. Later Renault announced formelly that the possibility of much greater sales to Arab markets had been a factor in the decision to cancel the Haifa contract.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
