Ford Motor Co.’s cancellation of plans to build a $1.6 billion auto manufacturing plant in San Luis Potosi has sounded alarms across Mexico.
Even as the country is being rocked by rowdy nationwide protests against a Jan. 1 gasoline price hike, the Ford news led the front pages of Mexico’s most influential newspapers Wednesday, and they tied the development directly to President-elect Donald Trump.
“Trump leaves Mexico without 3,600 jobs,” read the headline on El Universal. “Ford’s braking jolts the peso,” said Reforma, referring to the Mexican currency’s nearly 1 percent slump following the news.
“The jobs created in Mexico have contributed to maintaining manufacturing jobs in the United States which otherwise would have disappeared in the face of Asian competition,” the Mexico Economy Department said.
The Mexican peso slid again Wednesday, with the Bank of Mexico’s 48-hour interbank exchange rate for the currency weakening from 21.05 to the U.S. dollar to 21.52 at the close.
Mexicans have been nervous about Trump’s tough rhetoric toward their country, including disparaging remarks about immigrants who enter the U.S. illegally and vows to wall off the border and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, upsetting ties with what is by far Mexico’s largest trading partner.
Two weeks before inauguration, the scuttling of the planned Ford factory and Trump’s pressure on General Motors should be a “much-needed wake-up call,” said Mexico analyst Alejandro Hope.
It shows “how much actual leverage Trump has within specific companies, which is far greater than what Mexican elites thought until recently,” Hope said. “They claimed that at the end of the day economic interests would prevail over political messaging. That’s clearly not the case.”
In an editorial, El Universal also recalled the deal Trump struck in December with Carrier to keep 800 of 1,300 jobs at an Indiana furnace factory from being sent to Mexico, in return for millions of dollars in tax incentives. It also implicitly criticized the Mexican government’s response to the incoming administration.
“Mexico loses thousands of jobs with no word on a clear strategy for confronting the next U.S. government which has presented itself as protectionist and, especially, anti-Mexican,” the paper wrote. “Trump will try to recover as many U.S. companies that have set up in Mexico as possible. He will try to make them return at whatever cost, through threats or using public resources.”
“Ford’s decision is indicative of what awaits the economies of both countries,” the daily La Jornada said. “For ours a severe decrease in investment from our neighboring country, and for the U.S. a notable increase in their production costs.”
Hope said more decisions like Ford’s are likely to come. And while the loss of a single planned plant probably does not fundamentally change the U.S.-Mexico economic relationship, “it certainly shows that the idea that the status quo was entrenched was false.”
“This should put us on notice that when he says that he wants to renegotiate NAFTA, he means it,” Hope said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Cry on.mexico
Let’s see if I have this right, they want to send their people here but don’t mind taking jobs from us. Start your own businesses to compete and create your own people jobs so they don’t need to illegally sneak into ours and using our social services.. We can not afford to do this anymore.So Mexico it is time to step up and bring your country up to par. Stop stealing their money, stop being paid off by the cartels. Allow your people the chance to make Mexico a decent country to live in.
American people must realize that a relocation of factories to the US may result in slightly higher prices. But I’m willing to pay a higher price if it means my neighbors are working at a decent wage. We don’t need to keep buying cheap junk from China and every other low rent country. We need to support American companies and their workers. For Trump’s plan to succeed he will need the support of the American consumer. More of us need my attitude. Buy American where possible, and support American workers.
Your so right and it is something I have been saying since the 70’s which is when I first noticed a lot of things were being made and shipped in from China. China is known for no gov. controlled plants, dangerous chemicals in kids holloween items such as play fake teeth and the use of heavy die in all clothing as I had problems with a well known brand of clothing which I found out too late “Chico’s”, better hand wash first, the dye in them will stain everything it comes in contact with when wet. Chico’s is a high end store in America, and I spent a lot for my budget at a half price end of year sale. NEVER AGAIN, NOW I WILL ASK ON LINE, WHERE AN ITEM IS MANUFACTURED AT AND AT WHAT COMPANY!!! Always make sure purchases are “MADE IN THE USA”!!!
Amen. I returned a pair of work boots once when I noticed the label and it said “Made in China”. When asked why I wanted to return them, I told the clerk that “as an American working man, I was afraid my foot would rot off if I wore a Chinese boot”. Since then, I have only worn American boots. Sure, they cost twice as much. But they last three times longer and they fit my narrow foot. If we would all try to buy American products, you would see American jobs back in this country and our friends and neighbors will have decent jobs. Obama said “this is the new normal” of not having decent jobs in this country. Screw him and all the damned progressives globalists.
That might work, buying local products, if companies like Walmart would stop dealing exclusively with foreign producers. Walmart buys the foreign junk and dumps it on their customers at a savings of pennies. Their customers, those shoppers who are a little short on survival tactics prance home with their foreign time bombs thinking how smart they are while their neighbor is getting laid off.
Donald Trump said he would make Mexico pay for the wall. We are getting a better idea that he plans to make Mexico pay.
Folks, we are seeing one of the best comparisons I know between a weak leader (Barack Obama) and a strong leader (Donald Trump). With each one of these announcements world leaders are seeing that America will soon be reclaiming its leadership role in the world. The days of limp leaders in America are quickly coming to an end. Praise the Lord!
Wow!!!! A politician who is really doing what he promised! Will vote Trump next election for sure!
Well lets put this into perspective, BILLIONS OF DOLLARS are collected from American paychecks and given to people who have either come to this country UNLAWFULLY or came legally but overstayed ILEGALLY when their visa expired. There are also millions of immigrants legally applied for and admitted to our country costing billions of more tax payer dollars, in the mean time we the citizens of this country give BILLIONS of dollars away to other countries for disaster relief and other necessities needed, this country practically FUNDS THE United Nations on it’s own, while they throw Israel under the bus, but that is another story. Now while many people are hard working and are truly trying to improve their way of life, one must understand that this can not continue, the current administration does not seem to understand, let me rephrase that, the current administration has dedicated itself to destroying the middle class by taxing them into nonexistence, and causing the complete collapse of the dollar, the DEBT to GDP RATIO is out of control and the middle class can not continue to pay for the exorbitant fees needed to finance and pay back this debt, currently our debt is $19,935,025,589,392.85 VS 18,036,648,000,000.00 our GDP, so at this point we have a NEGITIVE $1,898,377,589,392.80 less product sales than we have debt or in easy to understand terms our debt is at 109.52% of all PRODUCTS AVAILABLE FOR SALE FROM THE USA, any business owner will tell you there is emanate collapse coming and we cannot cover our debt, something apparently the current president can not understand, we should have a debt ratio of perhaps at most 60% which would leave a profit margin of 40% this would be a viable business, one with strong debt to cash flow and one lenders would have no problem loaning money to. So as you can see, we the middle class can not afford to pay for the illegal immigrants, the UN , help rebuild other countries, or for that matter the legal immigrants entering our country and expect OUR CITIZENS to survive. There is one solution to this mess and that is to reduce the debt, bring back as many jobs and employers as possible and increase the production in our own country, or there will not be an AMERICA. One other item, build the wall and continue it around California, sell California back to Mexico, and let the California legislature get their money from the drug cartel,……. good luck with that California, wish you all the best in your new venture………
So far, he is doing what he said. While the left and fake news media companies, continue to bash and denigrate anything he says.
American’s are always crying about jobs going to China. DON’T buy at Walmart. Then a lot of jobs will come back. And you won’t get 8,000,000 foreign containers carried in foreign ships dumped at your ports.
But you have to buy cheapest. Cry on!
Sam Walton didn’t have that cheap import attitude. But apparently his children do (or the Corporate Heads that run Walmart now).
Thank You President Trump for what your doing for this country, Ford, I am proud of you too, You didn’t take a bail out and you
made your cars and went on to be successful and now all any of us can hope for is that before long a lot of new items coming into our stores will begin to show made in America too.. I have been sick of Chinese made products for a long time now because
they last long enough to get them out of the difficult packages and they break don’t work or they fall apart the first time you try to wash them.. Time for the American worker to make things that last as they use too..
God bless America and God Bless Mr Trump… Thank the hand of god for him being here.
and pray for him every day also.. American on the left will wake up and get with the program..
I am really sick of all these Liberals and Stupid follow the leader people dumping on Trump when he hasn’t even been sworn in yet.You don’t know what a President Trump will do and neither do I.But I will give him a chance and if things continue to get worse I will dump on him then and not before.
I believe Trump will do everything he promised and more to get America back on track again.He may be the best President yet and I hope he is.But the man deserves a fair chance,Give him a year and lets see what happens.
You people are very UN-American.We don’t treat people like this.You all act like you are CRAZY or Mentally ILL.When Obama was elected millions of us did not vote for Obama and were not happy with the election results but you didn’t see any of this behavior.We are adults and decided to wait and see and I hope you will too,although I doubt you are smart enough to do that.
T is the first president in decades to jerk the chains of big corps and the govt establishment in DC. Not surprising since the big corps and both parties are controlled by big money for campaigns. What money wants, money gets in America. Our govt is supposed to be a political operation with elected reps there to debate, discuss things for the best interest of the nation. But our govt was high jacked back in 1913 when the fed res was created by the handful of tycoons that had control of much of the money in circulation at that time due to the industrial revolution. I don’t think these bankers/financiers are anti-American, they are just pro-profit and want to stay that way? The promise of the Constitution being a govt for the people has been set aside for a type of socialism, that has made our elected officials think of themselves as ‘rulers’ instead of public servants?
There are consequences to shipping jobs overseas which we have done in great numbers for decades. One consequence is jobs are no longer available. This means what? That the govt has to step in and help large numbers of people. It is in someways the employer of last resort. And all of this sucking of jobs out of America has created a employment desert. IMO both govt and big business can be blamed for the lack of “free enterprise” that now exists.
Henry Ford raised the wages of his employees to $5/day way back when. He did so so his employees could afford to buy his cars. His perception of how the economy needs to work has been lost by too many B School graduates making too many business decisions focused only on the bottom line. And pols have been more then willing to legislate to please lobbyists for campaign funds. And both political parties have been corrupted by BM, big money and PC.
NOW………………………………………………………About the cost of that WALL!!!! DRAIN the swamp!!!