Saturday, August 05, 2017

Trump Victory?

Toyota initially planned to produce Corolla sedans at the plant it is building in the central state of Guanajuato but Trump threatened in January to impose a hefty fee on the world's largest automaker if it built Corollas for the U.S. market in Mexico so Toyota will now switch production of the small cars and a new Mazda SUV crossover to a new assembly plant planned for the United States. 

A victory for protectionism?

Toyota de Mexico spokesman Luis Lozano said the global auto maker would study producing SUVs in Guanajuato, in addition to the Tacoma truck model. "We're going to concentrate only on pickups at the beginning and are studying the potential for SUVs in the future," he said. Trucks and SUVs represented some 65 percent of the North American market, Lozano said.

Christopher Wilson of the Woodrow Wilson International Center, explained  "Instead of building lower value cars that generally offer smaller margins in Mexico and keeping high-value SUV and luxury model production in the U.S., they are moving in the opposite direction." 

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