Ford scuttles Mexico plant as Trump targets GM

Ford scuttled a plan to build a new factory in Mexico today following criticism from Donald Trump, and just hours after the president-elect attacked General Motors for importing Mexican-made cars into the US.
Following months of criticism from Trump for its investments in Mexico, Ford said it was spiking a plan to build a new USD 1.6 billion plant in San Luis Potosi, and would instead invest USD 700 million over the next four years to expand its Flat Rock Assembly Plant in Michigan to build electric and self-driving vehicles.
Ford chief executive Mark Fields said the second-biggest US automaker was hopeful Trump's policies will boost the US manufacturing environment.

"It's literally a vote of confidence around some of the pro-growth policies that he has been outlining and that's why we're making this decision to invest here in the US and our plant here in Michigan," Fields told CNN.
Earlier, GM became the latest multinational to end up in Trump's line of fire -- via Twitter as usual -- with the president-elect threatening to impose and tariff on GM's imports of a small number of Mexican-made Chevy Cruze cars to the US.
Trump took to Twitter again to crow about the Ford reversal. He posted a Fox News story with Ford's logo touting the announcement. In a second Twitter message, Trump said: Instead of driving jobs and wealth away, AMERICA will become the world's great magnet for INNOVATION & JOB CREATION."

Ford said today's moves would result in the additional of 700 new US jobs during the next four years. Ford said it would continue to develop its next generation Ford Focus at an existing plant in Hermosillo, Mexico.

"This will make way for two new iconic products at Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Michigan, where Focus is manufactured today -- safeguarding approximately 3,500 US jobs," Ford said.
The moves signal the president-elect, who has blamed international trade agreements for killing millions of US jobs, likely will loom large over next week's Detroit auto show, when the US industry's biggest executives gather to show off their new models.

Meanwhile, GM responded to Trump's Twitter attack with a statement emphasizing that the vast majority of its Cruze cars sold in the US are made in Ohio, with just a small percentage imported from a plant across the southern border.
"All Chevrolet Cruze sedans sold in the US are built in GM's assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio," the auto giant said. "GM builds the Chevrolet Cruze hatchback for global markets in Mexico, with a small number sold in the US."
Of 190,000 Cruze cars sold in the US, only 4,500 were hatchbacks made in Mexico, said a GM spokesman.
What is clear is that automakers and other multinationals are leery of Trump's tough talk on trade and his willingness to single out individual companies by name if they fail to toe the line: Carrier, Boeing and Lockheed have all be the subject of Twitter attacks in recent weeks.

Trump vowed on the campaign trail to impose a 35 per cent import duty on cars produced in Mexico, and he has also pledged to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.
Trump charged that NAFTA and other trade agreements were responsible for the loss of millions of American manufacturing jobs.
NAFTA permits cars to be sold duty-free within the US, Canada and Mexico if they are at 65 per cent made in the bloc.