Tuesday, June 20, 2017

DAY 152: Trump bragged about Ford not building cars in Mexico, but those jobs will go to China

Back in January, before he took office, Donald Trump tweeted an article from Fox News about Ford not bulding some of their cars in Mexico and, instead, building them in a plan already working in Michigan:



A few minutes later, Trump bragged American being a magnet for "innovation and job creation":



Well, guess what? Ford will not build his Focus model in Mexico, but neither in the US. Instead, Ford will build the Focus in China.

According to The New York Times:

In a move that highlights the shifting landscape of global auto production, Ford Motor said on Tuesday that it would build its next-generation small car in China rather than in the United States or Mexico.

The decision underscores the potential for China to export more vehicles for sale to American buyers, and the reluctance of domestic automakers to invest in additional production in Mexico.

So no new jobs from Ford in Mexico. And Trump's bragging ended up being, as usual, just plain old bullshit.

By the way; after an American who was in a comma died after being released from North Korea, Trump tweeted this, trying to blame things on China, but also trying to justify China for not doing anything to fix the issues with North Korea that Trump was supposed to be fixim himself:



As you may recall, Trump claimed he did not label China a currency manipulator because China was "helping" with North Korea. China didn't do anything with North Korea, and now Ford is sending its manufacturing to China.

So who is Trump going to blame this time? China? After saying what China did with North Korea didn't work?

I'm fairly certain he will not dare.

By the way: the White House doesn't even have a straight answer to Ford's move from Mexico to China. From The New York Times:

At a briefing in Washington on Tuesday, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, deflected a question about Ford’s decision on production in China, saying that tax reform would provide economic incentives to expand American manufacturing.

What economic incentives? The reason why Ford is moving production to China is because the Focus is not selling and Ford needed a cheaper manufacturing source. By moving to China Ford would save $1 billion dollars. And that's assuming sales didn't shrink anymore. But they are shrinking because low gas prices are incentivizing Americans to buy big trucks and SUVs that waste gas.

So this is not an issue that will be solved with tax reform. This is a market issue. Plain and simple. But Trump doesn't know how the economy works.


Support this blog by buying this book:

CLICK HERE TO BUY IT
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)