Trump Warns Toyota: “Build Plant in United States of America or Pay Big!”

That’s why most automakers are moving small-car production south of the border while refocusing U.S. production more on expensive products with bigger product margins, as well as engineering, design and R&D.

He wrote on Tuesday, “General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to USA vehicle dealers-tax free across border”.

Ford, however, still plans to shift production of small cars to Mexico from Michigan, even as it uses $700 million from the planned Mexico investment to expand its operations in Flat Rock, Michigan, and add 700 jobs.

Mazda Motor CEO Masamichi Kogai also said earlier in the week that the automaker’s Mexican plant will remain a core manufacturing base.

Trump has said he will focus on putting “America First” by pressing companies to keep jobs and production in the United States, vowing to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, a deal concluded by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Trump was highly critical of USA trade policy during the recent US presidential political campaign and dubbed the North American Trade Deal (NAFTA) one of the worst deals ever signed.

“We’re always considering ways to increase production in the United States, regardless of the political situation”, Toyota President Akio Toyoda told reporters on Thursday.

As seen in the above tweet, Trump warns Toyota of big import taxes if it takes its business to Mexico.

“So Ford is leaving”, Trump said during a nationally televised presidential debate in September.

Corolla production is to start in 2019 with a new model and would be moved from a factory in Cambridge, Ontario.

A closer look at Ford’s decision to cancel the new plant in Mexico reveals that it was not a clear-cut victory for US manufacturing.

Shortly Trump tweeted threatening Toyota, the automakers’ American Depositary Receipts, its stock traded on the USA market, fell more than 0.5 percent down, or 59 cents, to $120.45 on the New York Stock Exchange at 3:15 p.m.

As anyone who’s haggled with a auto dealer over the price of a sub-compact vehicle knows, the profit margins on these mini-cars are microscopic; the dealer doesn’t have much room to maneuver, pricewise. GM expects to have sold about 189,000 Cruze sedans and hatchbacks in the U.S.in 2016, which would be down sharply from the 226,602 sold in 2015.

“I think our goal is to work with the new administration and Congress” to develop fair trade policies, Fay said. But Trump’s attacks threaten to upend rational production plans the automakers have spent years putting into place, while also risking unintended consequences likely to harm consumers.