Ford Going Ahead With Plans For Two New Parts Plants In Mexico

Ford Motor Company last month announced that it was canceling plans to build a $1.6-billion small-car assembly plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

But the automaker is still going ahead with plans to open two other new plants in the country: a $1.1-billion engine plant in Chihuahua, and a $1.2-billion transmission facility in Guanajuato. Both are planned to become operational later this year, supplying engines and transmissions for the US, South America, Europe, and Asia, according to Yahoo!

The two Mexican Ford parts plants will employ some 3,800 people, on top of the 9,000 hourly workers Ford currently has in the country.

The decision to go ahead with the new facilities is likely to create friction between Ford and US President Donald Trump, who repeatedly blasted the automaker from the campaign trail for planning to create new jobs in Mexico with its now-canceled San Luis Potosi plant – jobs that that might otherwise have gone to American workers. President Trump has promised to renegotiate or exit the North American Free Trade Agreement, and since taking office, has proposed a 20-percent border tax on all goods imported from Mexico.