Ford Motors CEO Mark Fields emerged from a Tuesday morning meeting with President Trump eager to work with the new administration to “create a renaissance in American manufacturing.”
Fields and two other automobile executives – General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne – told reporters after a sit-down meeting with the president that they are “encouraged” by his economic agenda and will remain in contact with him as he rolls out new policies and eliminates regulations affecting America’s auto industry.
“Walking out of the meeting today, I know I come out with a lot of confidence that the president is very, very serious on making sure that the United States economy is going to be strong and have policies, tax, regulatory or trade to drive that, and I think that encourages all of us as CEOs as we make decisions going forward,” Fields said.
“There’s a huge opportunity working together as an industry with government that we can improve safety and improve the jobs creation and the competitiveness of manufacturing,” Barra added.
The meeting came less than 24 hours after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership using his executive authority, a move praised by Fields.
“We’ve been very vocal both as an industry and as a company and we’ve repeatedly said that the mother of all trade barriers is currency manipulation and TPP failed in meaningfully dealing with that,” he said, commending Trump for having the “courage to walk away from a bad trade deal.”
To spur job growth and encourage U.S. manufacturing production and investment, Trump has said his administration will impose a 35-percent import tax on companies that make their products in Mexico. The policy would likely shock the auto industry, which for years has taken advantage of cheap labor in Mexico for vehicle assembly.
Earlier this month, Fields announced that Ford had canceled a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico and would instead expand its manufacturing facilities in Michigan. Trump rushed to take credit for the decision at the time.
Marchionne said it wasn’t immediately clear which import regulations and standards Trump planned to change or enforce, as they did not discuss that during their meeting.
Fields had met with Trump on Monday, as well during a roundtable with several business executives. The new commander-in-chief has been busy summoning leaders from Congress and a variety of industries to sit down with him during his first few days in office.
