Ford's Fields Doubles-Down on Move to Mexico
Ford won’t be changing its plan to move small-car production from the U.S. to Mexico, despite Donald Trump winning the 2016 presidential election.
Speaking to the FOX Business Network on Tuesday, Ford CEO Mark Fields doubled down on the strategy, even though Trump, while on the campaign trail, said he would put a 35% tax on the company’s vehicles made in Mexico and sold in the United States.
“We’re just implementing our business plan,” Fields said. “And just like we’re making investments in Mexico and moving our focus down there, our plans haven’t changed to introduce two very important products into the plant that the focus is moving out of.”
The decision by Ford, one of the “Big Three” automakers in the U.S., will have “zero impact” on jobs, according to Fields.
“We’re a multi-national company, but our home is here in the U.S.,” he said. “In North America the majority of our capital expenditures, our research is done here. And just like we’re investing in Mexico, we’ve been there for 90 years, we’re investing here in the U.S.”
While stumping for the Oval Office, President-elect Trump frequently criticized U.S. trade deals that left the country at an unfair disadvantage, including the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — something Trump said he would seek to renegotiate or eliminate, calling it the “worst trade deal in history.”
Fields, however, had a different view on NAFTA.
“It’s been very good for the hemisphere… And when you look at NAFTA, you look at the production and the supply chains — they’re deeply integrated between the three countries and they support a lot of American jobs,” he said.