Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Foxconn quiet on investment claim
CEO told of $30B plans ‘off the record,’ Trump said
MADISON, Wis. — Foxconn Technology Group is not saying whether it plans to invest $30 billion in the United States, as President Donald Trump claimed the company’s leader told him “off the record.”
Trump announced to a group of small business leaders at the White House on Tuesday that Foxconn Chief Executive Officer Terry Gou told him privately that the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer was going to invest $30 billion in the United States. The company signed a deal with Wisconsin last week to build a $10 billion display panel manufacturing plant, and Trump did not specify where the additional spending would be.
Foxconn reiterated in a statement Wednesday that the Wisconsin plant “will be the first of a series of facilities we will be building in several states.” It did not address Trump’s statement about the total investment amount or Trump’s claims that Gou told it to him in confidence.
“We have not yet announced our investment plans for other sites,” Foxconn said in the statement. “We will provide an update as soon as we have finalized those plans.”
Gou previously said Foxconn was considering locations in seven states before Trump announced last week that a liquid crystal display monitors plant would be going to Wisconsin. Other states that Foxconn said it was looking at were Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Foxconn is the world’s largest contract maker of electronics, with factories across mainland China. It’s best known for making iPhones and other Apple devices, but its long list of customers includes Sony Corp., Dell Inc. and BlackBerry Ltd.
The new plant in Wisconsin,
which is scheduled to open in 2020 with 3,000 employees, will construct liquid crystal display monitors used in televisions and computers. It would bring Foxconn closer to its biggest market and be the first liquid crystal display monitor factory located outside of Asia.
The Wisconsin Legislature is considering a $3 billion incentive package that must be passed by the end of September
as part of the deal with Foxconn. A public hearing on the proposal was scheduled for today, just six days after a draft of the plan was released and eight days after news of the state’s deal with Foxconn broke.
Republicans who control the Legislature are split on how quickly to pass the bill, with state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald saying there are too many unanswered questions about the
tax breaks that must be addressed before a vote. Some Democrats and others have questioned whether the incentives are too much, while also raising concerns about the proposed waiving of state environmental permit requirements and other regulations to speed up construction.
Mark Pocan, a Democratic congressman who represents a swath of south-central Wisconsin that includes Madison,
questioned during a news conference Wednesday how many jobs will actually materialize and how much those workers will really be paid. He added that he’s worried Foxconn might abandon its plans if Trump fails to follow through on his proposal to raise import tariffs.
“We’ve got to be very real about what this actually means for Wisconsin taxpayers,” Pocan said.