Ford scraps planned Mexican factory

“In a surprising turnaround,”
Ford Motor Co. abandoned plans
this week for a new small-car
factory in Mexico th at Presidentelect
Donald Trump had criticized,
said John Stoll and Mike
Colias in The Wall Street Journal.
Ford will now produce its Focus
model in an existing Mexican factory
and invest $700 million in a
Michigan facility that will build
electric vehicles, creating 700 new U.S. jobs. Ford
CEO Mark Fields characterized the company’s
decision as “a vote of confidence” in Trump’s
“pro-growth policies.” Ford’s announcement
came hours after Trump slammed Ford rival GM
on Twitter for selling Mexican-made Chevrolet
Cruze hatchbacks in the U.S. GM responded that
the vast majority of U.S.-sold
Cruzes are built stateside.
Despite Trump’s criticism, U.S.
automakers are unlikely to give
up on building cars in Mexico
anytime soon, said David Welch
and Dave Merrill in Bloomberg
.com. Automakers “have rushed
to build factories” south of the
border in recent years; Ford, GM,
and Fiat Chrysler will produce nearly 1 million
more cars in Mexico by 2022. Lower wages are
only one factor. Another is that Mexico “has trade
agreements with 44 countries, giving automakers
access to half the global car market tariff-free.” By
contrast, the U.S. has trade deals with just 20 countries,
making up 9 percent of global car sales.

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