Coincidentally, Ford’s decision comes on the same day that the new President-elect launched an attack on General Motors for producing cars in Mexico bound for the United States market. “They’ll make their cars, they’ll employ thousands of people, not from this country and they’ll sell their auto across the border”.
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“All Chevrolet Cruze sedans sold in the US are built in GM’s assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio. Make in U.S.A.or pay big border tax!”. (NYSE:GM), stating that the firm should be taxed for different versions of the Chevrolet Cruze small auto that it imports from Mexico to U.S. dealers.
Industry group Center for Automotive Research estimated in an August 2016 report that vehicles produced in Mexico are comprised of up of up to 40% US -made content, with USA exports of parts and components to Mexico more than doubling between 2005 and 2014 to a level of $18.4 billion.
A spokesman for GM said the Cruze hatchback is built in Mexico for global distribution. That threat has shaken some automakers to their core, with Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) announcing today that it is cancelling its planned $1.6 billion Mexico factory, instead investing $700 million in a MI factory.
Ford eventually struck a deal with Trump, agreeing not to move production of the Lincoln MKC to Mexico, as the company had originally planned.
The Republican businessman has proposed a 35 percent import tariff on Mexican-made vehicles and often targeted Ford Motor Co. during his hard-fought campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
However, these claims were later refuted by General motors.
Paul Hennessy/Polaris/NewscomDonald Trump has not yet taken the oath of office, but he’s again overstepping the limits of presidential authority by bullying more American companies for shipping jobs to other counties.
Ford’s executive chairman, Bill Ford Jr, said he personally notified Mr Trump of the decision, but after Mr Trump’s early-morning GM tweet. But GM produces the Cruze hatchback at a plant in Mexico.
“Ford to scrap Mexico plant, invest in MI due to Trump policies”, the incoming president tweeted. Amazon.com, Boeing and Macy’s have been the subject of Trump tweets in the past.
GM will halt the third shift at the Lordstown plant on 23 January, cutting 1,250 jobs.
“I am thrilled that we have been able to secure additional UAW-Ford jobs for American workers”, UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles said in a release.
“We comply with all tax and trade regulations”, Morrissey said of the Mexican-made Cruzes shipped into the United States.
It means 700 additional Ford jobs will come to MI, and Ford says every factory job is likely to create another seven related jobs.
“This is a vote of confidence for President-elect Trump and in some of the policies he may be pursuing”, Fields said. He says companies realize Trump controls the Justice Department, the Defense Department, the IRS, Treasury and regulatory agencies, and “the amount of control that intersects with what companies are doing is enormous”.
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Americans have been moving away from cars toward trucks and SUVs for several years now as gas prices have dropped to near $2 per gallon and the larger vehicles have become more efficient.
