Ford to shift small car production to Mexico

Ford Motor Co is pushing ahead with plans to shift production of small carsto Mexico from Michigan, while ''two very important products'' would be built in its US factories, chief executive officer Mark Fields told Reuters yesterday.

President-elect Donald Trump had slammed Ford for its decision to shift small cars Focus manufacturing to Mexico in 2018, and said he would consider levying tariffs on Mexican-made Fords. Trump had also said he intended to scrap the North American Free Trade agreement, which also included Canada, and to build a wall on the US-Mexico border to stop illegal immigrants.

''We're going forward with our plan to move production of the Ford Focus to Mexico, and importantly that's to make room for two very important products we'll be putting back into Michigan plants,'' Fields said in an interview on the sidelines of the Los Angeles Auto Show. ''There will be no job impact whatsoever with this move.''

Ford chairman Bill Ford Jr said last month he met with Trump and had countered Trump's criticism, pointing out that the company made more cars and trucks in the US than any other automaker. 

Trump had said during campaigning that companies which moved jobs abroad would be charged "a 35% tax when they want to ship their products back into the United States".

But Fields said a levy on car imports would hurt the US economy. "A tariff like that would be imposed on the entire auto sector that could have a major impact on the US economy," Fields told reporters at the Los Angeles auto show.

"I continue to think that the right policies will prevail because we continue to share the same objective, which is a healthy and vibrant US economy," he said.