Chicago
- Nissan Motor CEO Carlos Ghosn has two words for Mexico-bashing
President-elect Donald Trump: message received.
“I’m
hearing ‘We in the US have a very large market, and we want our
fair share of the benefits both in terms of trade and jobs,”’
Ghosn, who runs Japan’s second-largest automaker, said in an
interview Thursday from the CES 2017 trade show in Las Vegas. “I’m
not hearing ‘close the border.”’
Trump
has taken aim at two of Nissan’s biggest peers in three days,
criticising Toyota Motor for its plans to build a Corolla
factory in Mexico and General Motors for importing a version of its
Cruze compact. Nissan is among nine automakers that have announced
more than $24 billion in investments in Mexico since 2010, lured by
its cheap labor and free-trade agreements with the US and more than
40 other countries.
As
Mexico’s top auto producer, Nissan would feel the pain more so than
any carmaker if Trump follows through on his threats to slap a border
tax on vehicles. Trump criticised Ford Motor repeatedly on the
campaign trail for its plan to move small car production south of the
border. On Tuesday, Ford said it would cancel plans to build a $1.6
62, has plenty of experience with border issues: He was born in
Brazil to parents who immigrated from Lebanon. In addition to holding
passports for those countries, he also has one for France and is CEO
and chairman of Renault SA. So despite having built 830 000 vehicles
in Mexico in 2015 and having a joint plant under construction there
with Daimler AG, the executive said Nissan isn’t worried.
“What
the president-elect is saying is America first,” Ghosn said. “We’re
fine with that.”