Ford is going ahead with plans to move small-car production from the US to Mexico despite President-elect Trump's recent threats to impose tariffs on companies that move work abroad, the AP reports. CEO Mark Fields said Ford's plan to move production of the Ford Focus from Michigan to Mexico will proceed, in part because US consumers demand low prices for small cars. The Focus starts at $16,775, which is less than half the average price that US consumers pay for new vehicles. But Fields stressed that no US jobs will be lost, since the Michigan plant that makes the Focus will be getting two new products. "If you're a worker in that plant, you now have even more job security because we have two products coming in instead of one," he said.
In a series of tweets last weekend, Trump reiterated a threaten to impose a 35% tariff on companies that build new plants abroad and sell products back to the US. Although Ford wasn't mentioned specifically, Trump did target the company a number of times during the campaign on the issue of trade and US jobs. Fields said tariffs can't be imposed on individual companies, only entire sectors, so they would wind up hurting the whole auto industry. Nissan, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, and Toyota are among the other companies that export Mexican-made vehicles to the US.
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In a series of tweets last weekend, Trump reiterated a threaten to impose a 35% tariff on companies that build new plants abroad and sell products back to the US. Although Ford wasn't mentioned specifically, Trump did target the company a number of times during the campaign on the issue of trade and US jobs. Fields said tariffs can't be imposed on individual companies, only entire sectors, so they would wind up hurting the whole auto industry. Nissan, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, and Toyota are among the other companies that export Mexican-made vehicles to the US.
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