Fields declined to say what a president could do to keep Ford from shifting jobs to Mexico, but said that “clearly looking at the tax code, simplifying that [and] regulatory certainty is always very beneficial”.
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“That is correct”, he said.
Ford also has previously declined to confirm that the Focus compact vehicle and Ford C-Max hybrid and plug-in cars are the nameplates it will make in Mexico. They’ll never leave in a million years. In fact, he says the supplier industry is having trouble filling jobs in the state, both factory and engineering.
Chesbrough says he doesn’t think the new operations in Mexico are actually pulling supplier jobs out of MI. Why not create more jobs in America? And in some ways, I think it could be an opportunity, in that it will be making available numerous manufacturing capabilities in the USA and in MI – for Ford and other manufacturers – to focus on the bigger vehicles, which are really the higher profit vehicles.
Ford Motor’s CEO is firing back at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over his allegations that the automaker’s plans to shift all small vehicle production to Mexico will cost jobs.
“What we announced is that we’ll be moving our focus out of MI so that we can compete more financially in that particular segment but at the same time, that’s an agreement we have with the UAW”, Fields said.
“We create jobs in numerous places where we do business”, he said.
“Over the next two to three years, we will have migrated all of our small-car production to Mexico and out of the United States”, Fields said at a daylong investor conference in Dearborn.
The billionaire on Thursday said his criticism of companies like Ford is boosting his appeal in states with auto-manufacturing backgrounds.
The paper also noted that Mexico has become a “Mecca” for vehicle makers and the country’s auto production is now larger than Canada’s. That one model is made at Michigan Assembly. The new Ford plant is expected to cost $1.6 billion to build.
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When asked if the move of the Focus and C-Max from Michigan Assembly to Mexico would result in any US job losses, Fields responded, “Absolutely not”. “Absolutely not. Zero”, he said.
