It seems trump’s presidency is creating confidence among businessmen to invest in the US. As a first, automobile giant Ford has cancelled its plan of building a new plant in Mexico. Instead it will shift the $700 million project to Michigan. The project would create 700 new jobs.
Trump's presidency has created a pro-business environment
Mark Field, the CEO of Ford clarified that he has not discussed anything with Trump in particular. The only reason is that the pro-business environment created by Trump’s victory would help his company grow. He said that they didn't cut a deal with Trump, and that they did it for business reasons.
This $700 million project would focus on manufacturing electric and self-driving vehicles. The company is far-sighted with their approach. The belief is that with diminishing oil reserves, the sale of electric cars would exceed those of cars powered by gasoline in the next 15 years.
US would be a better option than Mexico
In an interaction with Poppy Harlow from CNN, when Field was asked why he would prefer to shift the project from Mexico to Michigan, understanding the fact that it costs 40% less to manufacture the cars in Mexico, he said that he is very positive about the tax policies and regulatory policies Trump is about to introduce.
Ford was planning to invest $1.6 billion to build the plant in Mexico and that would have created 2,800 new jobs in the country.
However, in Michigan, the investment would be $700 million and 700 jobs would be created. Field justified it by saying that in the US, they are not creating a new plant but expanding an existing one. Thus, the same amount of resources would not be needed.
Another concern raised was about the fact that President-elect Trump backed out of deals with Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Field said that he didn’t have any deal with Trump specifically. It was simply a ‘vote of confidence’ in the business environment created by his victory.
The CEO was clearly trying to portray his venture as a pro-US one, and also expressed his pride in being able to bring jobs to the US.
