Ford Scraps Factory in Mexico, Trump Tweets Tax Threat to GM

The head of the Ford Motor Company says the automaker is dropping plans to build a new factory in Mexico.

Ford will instead invest $700 million in a plant based in Michigan.

The move comes after President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly threatened during the recent presidential campaign to place high tariffs on Ford vehicles produced outside the U.S.

At that time Ford officials pushed back, arguing it was too late to change their plans about the new factory in Mexico.

But now Ford CEO Mark Fields says the automaker will cancel the Mexican plant and instead build electric vehicles at a factory in Flat Rock.

Fields says Ford will invest enough in the Flat Rock facility to create roughly 700 jobs.

He called it part of an effort to reinvigorate manufacturing in the U.S., something Trump also vowed on the campaign trail to do if we gained the presidency.

And Fields says the decision to drop the new Mexico factory was driven in part by Trump publicly pressuring the automaker, though he adds that Ford looks forward to working cooperatively with the President-elect.

“We’re also encouraged by the pro-growth policies that President-elect Trump and the new Congress have indicated that they will pursue,” Fields said. “These tax and regulatory reforms are critically important to boost U.S. competitiveness.”

Ford announced the move only hours after Trump tweeted a threat to General Motors, vowing that that the automaker must build vehicles “in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!”