Ford tells Trump no Lincoln SUV
production going to Mexico
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[November 18, 2016]
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect
Donald Trump said Ford Motor Co Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr told him
the automaker would not move a Kentucky plant to Mexico, but the firm
said it informed him the decision was to keep one vehicle in U.S.
production.
On Thursday, Trump posted on Twitter: "I worked hard with Bill Ford to
keep the Lincoln plant in Kentucky. I owed it to the great State of
Kentucky for their confidence in me!"
"He will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky - no Mexico," the
President-elect tweeted.
But Ford has repeatedly said it has no plans to close any U.S. plants
and likely could not do so under the terms of the current United Auto
Workers contract that expires in 2019.
This is not the first time Trump's comments about Ford production have
been called into question. Last year, he took credit for Ford moving
work from Mexico to Ohio, while the automaker had already made the
decision in 2011 - long before Trump announced a run for president.
Spokeswoman Christin Baker said Ford "confirmed with the President-elect
that our small Lincoln utility vehicle made at the Louisville Assembly
plant will stay in Kentucky".
"We are encouraged that President-elect Trump and the new Congress will
pursue policies that will improve U.S. competitiveness and make it
possible to keep production of this vehicle here in the United States,"
she added, in a statement.
The company builds both the Ford Escape and Lincoln MKC SUV at its
Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky, which Trump refers to as the
"Lincoln plant" and where Ford employs about 4,700 people. It also has a
separate truck plant in Louisville, where it builds pickups and larger
SUVs.
It is not clear how many jobs would have been impacted if the
low-selling MKC had moved to Mexico.
Ford has sold about 20,000 MKC SUVs this year in the United States,
compared with 258,000 Escape SUVs.
Ford said last month it would suspend production of the Escape and MKC
at its Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky for two weeks because of
low demand.
In 2015, it told workers at the plant that it planned to phase out MKC
production by 2019 and move it elsewhere.
The U.S. No. 2 automaker is planning to move some small-car production
south of the border.
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appears at a campaign
roundtable event in Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S., October 28,
2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo
SCATHING CRITICISM
Ford has endured scathing criticism from Trump over its Mexican
investments for nearly 18 months.
He has said at times incorrectly that Ford planned to fire American
workers because of its Mexican investments. During his presidential
campaign, the Republican candidate also said that if elected he
would not allow Ford to open a new plant in Mexico and would slap
hefty tariffs on any Ford vehicles made there.
A Trump spokeswoman did not immediately respond to questions about
whether Ford's decision to keep production of an SUV in the United
States would cause him to drop plans to impose tariffs on some Ford
vehicles built in Mexico.
In April 2015, Ford said it planned to invest $2.5 billion to build
two new plants in Mexico, adding 3,800 jobs in all. Earlier this
year, Ford said it will invest a further $1.6 billion in Mexico for
small-car production to start in 2018.
In September, Ford confirmed that all of the company's small-car
production will leave U.S. plants and head to lower-cost Mexico by
2019, but no plants would be closed as a result.
Ford has repeatedly said no U.S. jobs will be lost because of the
move - and it will produce two new vehicles at a Detroit area plant
that built the small cars.
In October, Bill Ford said he had met with Trump to talk about his
extensive attacks on Ford's investments in Mexico.
Ford said Trump's criticism was "infuriating" and "frustrating"
because of the company's extensive investments and employment in the
United States.
(Reporting by Eric Beech and David Shepardson; Editing by Sandra
Maler, Bill Rigby and Himani Sarkar)
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