Trump tells automakers he wants them to build ‘millions more cars’ in U.S.
Auto execs seek ‘one national standard’ in talks on environmental regulations
U.S. President Donald Trump told top auto executives at a meeting in the White House that he wants them to build “millions more cars” intheU.S.
“We have at this table the biggest car manufacturers in the world,” Trump said as the meeting got underway Friday. “We’re working on how to build more cars in the United States.”
Top executives of General Motors Co., Honda Motor Co., Ford Motor Co., Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and other companies came to discuss trade and environmental standards enacted by the Obama administration.
Before reporters were ushered out, Trump asked the group to go around the table and introduce themselves and explained that they would be discussing environmental regulations such as auto efficiency standards and trade — especially the North American Free Trade Agreement currently under renegotiation.
“I’ve never been a NAFTA fan,” Trump said.
The automakers went into the meeting hoping to persuade Trump to co-operate with Jerry Brown, the Democratic governor of California, who invoked biblical references when calling the Trump administration’s proposal to roll back auto efficiency regulations “profoundly dangerous.”
They wanted to emphasize their support for easing the Obama-era standards, but not so much that it triggers a conflict with California and results in a split market of environmental regulations set by Washington and Sacramento.
“We are not asking the administration for a rollback,” Ford Chairman Bill Ford said Thursday during the automaker’s annual meeting. “We want California at the table and we want one national standard.”
In attendance were representatives of the world’s biggest carmak- ers, including GM’s CEO Mary Barra, Ford’s CEO James Hackett, Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, and Rick Schostek, executive vicepresident of Honda North America Inc. That meeting also included Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and economic adviser Larry Kudlow, the White House said in a statement.
The White House said in advance that the president looked forward to a productive discussion with the automobile executives.
“The President will hear from the automaker CEOs about the impact of the rule making on the auto industry and their efforts to negotiate a ‘National Program’ with the state of California,” Lindsay Walters, White House Deputy Press Secretary, said in a statement.
The meeting comes against a background of occasionally bumpy relations between Trump and an industry that he championed on the campaign trail.
As a candidate, he repeatedly attacked Ford over its decision to build an automobile plant in Mexico. Three days before Trump’s inauguration, Ford announced that it would abandon the plant — even though construction was underway. The president-elect responded with tweets of praise.
Trump aimed more attacks at GM and Toyota over manufacturing plans for Mexico, and both responded by announcing billions of dollars in already planned investments in American plants.
Automakers, parts suppliers and dealers have been wary about the administration’s renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, warning that higher local content requirements could be unworkable and raise vehicle prices.
“Their hand is a bit stronger than perhaps the administration realizes,” Adam Jonas, an auto analyst at Morgan Stanley, said Friday on Bloomberg Television. “Those 10 CEOs might represent the better part of 1 million jobs in the United States and indirectly supporting many, many millions more, particularly in states that supported the administration, such as Michigan.”
Jones said the automakers definitely want one standard. “And they don’t want this going to the Supreme Court and being dragged out in the media and somehow be in the public, affiliated with a kind of hostility toward the world’s fifth-largest economy, California,” he said.