President Trump, Detroit’s Big 3 Automakers Talk 'Renaissance' In U.S. Manufacturing

President Donald Trump met Tuesday with the CEOs of Detroit’s Big Three automakers Tuesday, telling them they’re not being singled out for manufacturing operations outside the United States and underscoring his commitment to tax and regulatory changes that favor expansion at home.

“We have a very big push on to have auto plants and other plants — many other plants,” Trump told reporters before the meeting at the White House. “It’s happening.”

Among those attending were General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Ford CEO Mark Fields and Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne. Each of the Big Three automakers has announced plans since Trump’s election to invest in U.S. manufacturing plants, but all three have a presence in Mexico as well.

To reporters, Trump said his administration will make it easier for automakers and other manufacturers to expand in the United States. “We want regulations,” the president said, “but we want regulations that mean something.”

Trump wasn’t specific about what regulations he would cut, according to media reports.

Going into the meeting, Trump made no secret of its primary theme, tweeting hours before that he wants U.S. automakers to manufacture cars and trucks that Americans drive in the United States.

After the meeting, Barra said automakers have a “huge opportunity, working together as an industry,” the Detroit Free Press reported.

Fields said Trump envisions a “renaissance in American manufacturing,” Reuters reported.

Fields also praised Trump for signing an executive order to withdraw from the Trans Pacific Partnership, which critics have argued doesn’t address unfair labor practices and foreign currency manipulation, putting American manufacturers and automakers at a competitive disadvantage.

Trump made TPP and NAFTA — the North American Free Trade Agreement — cornerstones of his campaign. Trump is expected to sign an executive order to rework NAFTA.

NAFTA, which has allowed tariff-free trading between the United States, Canada and Mexico, is another matter entirely. Trump has repeatedly warned, both during the campaign and after his collection, that he will impose steep 35 percent tariffs on automakers importing Mexican-made vehicles and parts to the United Stats.

At Detroit’s North American International Auto Show, automakers were anxious about how how Trump’s trade plans would affect operations on both sides of the border.

"I need clarity, and we need rules," Marchionne, the Fiat Chrysler CEO, told CNN.

“It's possible if tariffs are imposed, if they're sufficiently large, we’d have to withdraw. It is quite possible,” he said. “Right now they [rules] are all on the table. We’ll wait.”

Fiat Chrysler said earlier this month it is bringing 2,000 jobs to Ohio and Michigan as part of a $1 billion industrialization investment, the company announced Sunday. Specifically, plants in Warren, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio, will begin making the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer and a Jeep pickup truck, respectively.

Last week, GM announced a $1 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing that will create 7,000 domestic jobs. The announcement followed one by crosstown rival Ford Motor Co., which said it was pulling back on expansion plans in Mexico. Instead of investing $1.6 million in a plant in Mexico, Ford said it would put $700 million into expansion of one of its Michigan plants, adding 700 jobs.

Photo by Karl-Ludwig Poggemann via Flickr Commons