Ford Motor Company’s cancellation of plans to build a $1.6 billion auto manufacturing plant in San Luis Potosi has sounded alarms throughout 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 on 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 one 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.
Mexicans have been nervous about Trump’s tough rhetoric toward their country, including disparaging remarks about immigrants who come to 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.
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Last I checked, Trump is the incoming President of the United States, not of Mexico, and his job is to take care of Americans first, which, so far, he seems to be doing.
For years we’ve sent millions in aid and farmed out jobs to Mexico while Americans went unemployed, and what did Mexico give us in return? As Trump once put it, they give us their dregs, their undesirables and their diseased. They let illegal immigrants from every corner of the earth trample through their country and across our border with no thought to a changed scenario in the future.
Apparently, it’s going to be a hard pill for Mexico to swallow when they realize they’re no longer dealing with a man-child of a president who cares about the natives of practically any other country before he gives two hoots about Americans.
While I still have reservations about Trump in some other areas, this looks like a deal that’s good for America, and hopefully there are more to come.
~Kathy
Categories: Political
Pesky Truth 
Who has made it incumbent upon USA to give other countries OUR jobs which WE developed and then in turn leave OUR doors open for tresspassers to invade OUR country, take OUR jobs, while polluting OUR society with all THEIR illicit behaviors and then send ALL the money THEY rake in back to themselves?
LibTards and DamnitCrats is WHO. Damn it,
Outlaw Liberalism.
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Everything always come back to the same old culprits, doesn’t it, WT? At some point, we just have to say ‘enough’ and break this endless cycle.
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Yeah, and politicians are just like ISIS & all their ilk as they hide behind women and children and not even address themselves apart from their neighbors.
When an individual is being pressed for charges from a corporate entity it’s nearly impossible to ever identity who is responsible than someone else down the hall.
How could even a sports event properly proclaim a victor when the players couldn’t be distinguished from the audience?
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So far, it looks to me like Trump is using both carrot and stick when persuading companies to keep or return manufacturing plants in the U.S. Jobs for Americans is one of Trump’s priorities and I think that he’ll stay the course on that – unlike B. Hussein who cared more for illegal aliens than for American citizens. The entire business climate should improve with Trump in office and that, in turn, will help finance the other aspects of Trump’s agenda.
And as far as Mexico goes, what have they done FOR us lately?
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Mexico has done zero, zilch, nada, not one blooming thing for the US. We owe them nothing and should, at the very least rethink the aid we send them until we see the kind of cooperation you’d expect from a neighbor and an ally.
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Seeing the reaction from the Mexican side is quite interesting, Kathy. They have taken so much for granted for a very long time and now it’s good to see them worried.
I am reluctant to criticize Trump when he is providing such a great demonstration of what it looks like when a POTUS actually loves his country and wants to look out for the interests of Americans; BUT, as usual I have mixed feelings about what Trump is doing, and I suspect that will be the case throughout his presidency. Of course we want jobs to stay in this country, but it’s critical to who the U.S. is at its core that it be done the right way. Employers shouldn’t be harassed and bullied into making management decisions that aren’t in the best interests of their companies, even if it just appears that way. Harassing and bullying companies is the union trademark, and you know how I feel about the unions.
Having said that, I believe I heard/read that Ford’s change of heart was actually a consequence of anticipating that Trump will follow through on promises to reduce corporate taxes, cut regulations and improve trade policies. If that’s the case and Ford is making decisions that truly are in the company’s best interests, that’s great; but both Ford and Trump should make it clear that that’s what happened lest people get used to the idea of cheering on a president who singles out companies and uses the power of his office to micro-manage them. That’s a dangerous precedent we should be wary of.
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I also have mixed feelings about Trump’s methods and I have a feeling we’re going to be on egg shells for a long time and the media gets credit for at least part of that.
Early on he said there would be tax breaks and incentives, as well as tariffs, to encourage manufacturers to stay in the US, but of course we’re hearing about the tariffs and nothing of the incentives, if there truly are any. Is he a man of his word or that union bully? Time will tell, but for now, Mexico is all twitchy, and that makes for another interesting side show.
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I agree Kathy. We give Mexico so much it’s unbelievable. Something to the tune of millions each year enough to make every citizen of Mexico rich sends their poor to us and they’re crying? Screw them
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Bescher, you’re right – screw ’em. One source said that in 2010 we gave them in excess of $750 million, followed by $417 million in 2012 and $560 million in 2013, so yeah, half the people in Mexico should be sitting pretty. Apparently most all that money stays with the upper echelon in government.
Do we oversee how they spend our money? Of course not. Instead we build manufacturing facilities there and employee thousands, while thousands more come through our revolving door of a border.
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