“I don’t want cars made in Canada. I don’t want cars made in Mexico. I want them made here,” he said in front of reporters during his tour of the Ford Rouge Center complex in Dearborn, Michigan, where F-150 and F-150 Raptor trucks are assembled. Accompanied by company executives, he walked along the production line, greeted workers and signed the chest of a unit at the end of the tour.
The statements occurred inside the industrial warehouse, before television cameras and mobile phones that immediately spread the comments on social networks.
Asked about the future of the T-MEC, the president responded that the United States can have the agreement or not have it, without that representing a problem. He insisted that his priority is for automotive manufacturing to return to US territory and maintained that tariffs make it less attractive to produce vehicles outside the country.
Hours later, during a speech in Detroit, the president reiterated his commitment to using tariffs as a lever to strengthen local industry. His statements come in the prelude to the T-MEC review process, scheduled for this year, a mechanism that allows evaluating the continuity, adjustments or eventual exit of the trade agreement.
