Howes: Leave it to
pols to get it wrong on Ford ,
Mexico
Excerpt: Yet here we have the Republican nominee predicting
Thursday that the Dearborn automaker will “fire
all of their employees in the United
States ” — and a CNN anchor asking Ford CEO
Mark Fields whether Trump’s allegation is true.
Seriously?
“It’s really unfortunate when politics gets in the way of
the facts,” Fields replied, reciting a litany that is not news to followers of
Ford or the Detroit-based industry. Reality simply doesn’t support Trump’s
cockamamie narrative flogging Ford’s year-long perpetuation of its
small-cars-to-Mexico story.
The United States
is not “losing” more than 4,000 jobs at Michigan Assembly in Wayne
because Ford will build small cars in Mexico . United Auto Workers members
here will build what Fields called two “very exciting new” products: the
compact Ranger pickup (a sop to meet federal fuel economy rules) and what is
expected to be a revived iteration of a Bronco SUV.
The number of union jobs lost in the States to this move is
zero. Why do you think this compacts-to-Mexico gambit, dropped in the middle of
last year’s national contract talks, didn’t emerge as a strike-worthy issue
with the UAW? Because union leaders and the rank-and-file know how the industry
works, and what they would get, far better than the smart people running for
president.
Second, Ford wouldn’t be moving its Focus, C-Max and related
hybrids south of the border if more customers wanted those vehicles. But in a
world of $2.25-a-gallon gas, surging American energy production and the
increasing fuel-efficiency of new crossovers and SUVs, customers don’t need
small cars to get the economy they seek.
... Finally, both Trump and Clinton are voicing opposition to the
Trans-Pacific Partnership and a willingness to reopen the North American Free
Trade Agreement. The prospect of greater trade restrictions means the
automakers could consider producing vehicles in countries with more liberal
trade policies, i.e., Mexico .
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