Donald Trump said if elected president he would charge a 35 percent import tax to stop Ford Motor Company from moving all of its small car production to Mexico.
“Basically, when they make their car they think they are going to get away with this and they fire all their employees in the United States, they move to Mexico,” said the Republican presidential nominee during a Fox News interview on Thursday. “But then that car comes back across the border into our country that now comes in free, we’re going to charge a 35 percent tax. And you know what’s going to happen? They are never going to leave. They’ll never leave in a million years.”
Ford announced Wednesday that the car company is moving all of its small car production to Mexico, and is investing $1.6 billion to build a plant in Mexico and create 2,800 jobs there. He speculated the announcement had to do with his campaign, which he added is gaining support in carmaking states, “because they think I’m gonna win and I’m gonna stop them. I have a way of stopping them very very easily. And the politicians have that way too.”
Trump said he will make the situation a win-win for the American people, saying production will either stay or the country will make “a lot of money” from the tax.
“And if they want to leave, we’re going to make a lot of money because they are going to have to pay the tax. It will stop 98 percent of the businesses because businesses are flowing out of our country, you would not believe what is happening,” he said.
A Ford Motor Company representative told The Washington Examiner in a statement that because they intend to begin producing new products at the plants in Mexico, there will be no impact on domestic jobs. The corporation will continue to make cars, SUVs, and trucks in the United States.
