On Tuesday morning, Ford Motor Co. announced it would scrap a plan to invest $1.6 billion in a new production plant in Mexico and instead plow $700 million into the Flat Rock Assembly Plant south of Detroit, which will add 700 jobs.
It is tempting to see the move as a proactive response to President-elect Donald Trump’s propensity to call out U.S. companies moving production overseas. Earlier Tuesday morning, Trump was zinging General Motors on Twitter for producing the Chevrolet Cruze in Mexico and allegedly shipping them across the border. (GM says it only ships about 4,500 Cruzes per year from Mexico to the U.S.) In his announcement, Ford CEO Mark Fields did cite the “pro-growth policies that President Trump and the newly-elected Congress have proposed” as a reason for the investment.
