Trump has met the heads of GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler pushing them to make more vehicles in the United States and create more American jobs.
I am to a large extent an environmentalist, I believe in it, but it's out of control
President Donald Trump has met the bosses of the three biggest US auto manufacturers pushing them to make more vehicles in the United States and create more American jobs.
He told General Motors’ Mary Barra, Ford’s Mark Fields and Fiat Chrysler’s Sergio Marchionne that he wants to reduce regulations to help them build new assembly plants in the US.
“We are bringing manufacturing back to the US, big league, we are reducing taxes very substantially and we are reducing unnecessary regulations. We want regulations, but we want real regulations, that mean something. We’re going to make the process much more simple for the auto companies and for everybody else that wants to do business in the US. I think you gonna find this to be [we will go] from very inhospitable to extremely hospitable.”
Automakers at White House for meeting with Trump:
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 24, 2017
Craig Glidden GM
Mary Barra GM
Mark Fields Ford
Serge Marchionne Fiat
Ziad Ojakli Ford pic.twitter.com/tgy98fqspT
As the flip side to his criticism of moving production overseas and threats to apply hefty tariffs on imported vehicles, Trump assured the carmakers that he would remove obstacles – speeding up environmental approvals.
He told them: “I am to a large extent an environmentalist, I believe in it, but it’s out of control. And we’re going to make a very short process, and we are either going to give you your permits or we’re not going to give you your permits but you’re going to know very quickly. And generally speaking we’re going to be giving you your permits. So we’re going to be very friendly.”
Auto execs, Mark Fields of Ford, Mary Barra of GM and Sergio Marchionne of Fiat Chrysler, emerge from Trump meeting pic.twitter.com/qHNLVcFVHO
— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) January 24, 2017
After the meeting Ford’s chief executive Mark Fields said he was encouraged by Trump’s economic policies.
He also praised the president for his intent to withdraw from Trans-Pacific Partnership – TPP – trade deal.
“We’ve repeatedly said that the mother of all trade barriers is currency manipulation and TPP fails in meaningfully dealing with that. We appreciate that the president’s courage to walk away from a bad trade deal,” Fields said.
GM’s Mary Barra spoke of a huge opportunity to work together with government to improve the environment, safety, job creation and competitiveness.
Great meeting with Ford CEO Mark Fields and General Motors CEO Mary Barra at the
WhiteHouse</a> today. <a href="https://t.co/T0eIgO6LP8">pic.twitter.com/T0eIgO6LP8</a></p>— Donald J. Trump (realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
NEW: GM CEO Mary Barra calls automaker meeting with Pres. Donald Trump “constructive and wide-ranging” https://t.co/Pt8UQ3JELepic.twitter.com/nrkiR0qQqn
— ABC News (@ABC) January 24, 2017