 "The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Warren Transmission Operations Plant in Warren, Michigan Reuters")
After more than a year of watching Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump bash Ford Motor for moving jobs to Mexico, General Motors has pushed ahead with its own expansion. It just hasn't said as much as Ford.
GM is advancing on an $800 million investment for its global small-car line-up that includes a factory retooling in San Luis Potosi state. That plant and another facility in Mexico will also build the all-new Chevy Equinox sport-utility vehicle next year, people familiar with the matter said.
The auto maker has only said that the new Equinox will be built in a factory in Canada and two other sites, keeping mum about Mexico and avoiding both attention from Trump and the chance that the news might have roiled labour talks in Canada last month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
Taking a lower profile has kept GM out of Trump's cross-hairs and helped the Detroit-based company reach an agreement with its Canadian union, even as the Republican candidate singled out Ford's latest Mexican factory plan as "an absolute disgrace." For Mexico, GM's tight-lipped approach hints at how US companies might operate if Trump wins the election after campaigning against the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"Big American companies are being cautious, they don't want to have issues with the presidential candidates," Mario Chacon, head of global business promotion at Mexico's foreign investment agency, said in an interview. "They're feeling repressed because anything they say can be used against them."
Bloomberg
