GM's decision to cut jobs just after the new NAFTA agreement infuriates Donald Trump

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump sent a warning message Tuesday on GM's front bumper, threatening to pull out all US subsidies to the biggest US automaker, if its plans to cut jobs and produce in factories North American companies proved a precursor for the construction of interconnected electric cars in China.

The US president's chief economic advisor was attending a White House briefing when Trump presented his latest paper, 24 hours after General Motors announced plans to cut more than 14,000 jobs and end the five plants, including one in Oshawa, Ontario. .

"The United States has saved General Motors and we are delighted!" Tweeted Trump, noting that GM's facilities in China and Mexico seemed to be unscathed. "We are currently considering removing all GM subsidies, including for electric cars. General Motors made a big bet in China a few years ago when they built factories there (and in Mexico). I am here to protect American workers!

The company said the cutbacks – 2,500 jobs in Oshawa, GM's Canadian center, as well as 3,300 production workers in the US and 8,000 employees – are part of a dramatic correction to better position GM for dominating electrified, interconnected and automated networks. automobiles.

But it was hard to miss the fact that most of the cuts in the United States were to the Midwest Rust Belt, a region that played a key role in promoting Trump and its promising "America First" program to the White House in 2016.

They also put a stop to the signing of this week's US-Mexico-Canada agreement, the hard-won successor to NAFTA, whose Director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, acknowledged that his goal was to foster the growth of the automotive sector.

"(Trump) believes – as frankly the Prime Minister of Canada, (Justin) Trudeau – that the agreement with the USMCA has been of great help to the auto industry and workers in the auto sector, "Kudlow said at a briefing at the White House.

"It is disappointing that it seems that GM prefers to build its electric cars in China rather than in the United States, and we are going to look at some subsidies regarding electric cars and others, that's going on." they are applied or not. "

It did not look like that right now: electric vehicles are eligible for a $ 7,500 federal tax credit, but neither the president nor Kudlow provided any further clarification as to whether this is the case. that they plan to reconsider.

Kudlow said the White House is expecting the USMCA to be signed, as expected, by the three countries when G20 leaders meet later this week in Buenos Aires. This step, largely ceremonial, was uncertain as Canada and Mexico seek to end their stalemate with US tariffs on steel and aluminum tariffs.

Mexico was unequivocal, saying it would not be written as long as US taxes on Mexico's metal exports were still in place.

Canada has been more conciliatory: "Our goal very clearly has always been to get a signature on November 30th. That's what we're working on, "said Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on Tuesday.

"All the Canadian federal government is telling us is that we are about to sign this week. I did not hear anything else, "said Flavio Volpe, President of the Canadian Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association.

Dan Ujczo, a Ohio-based trade lawyer from Lordstown, the same community near Cleveland with one of five genetically modified plants, falsely claimed that the new deal could have prevented or accelerated the cuts. production must stop next year.

The cuts only concern General Motors, which is preparing industry experts to see it as a difficult and challenging future for old-school automakers. I said.

"It was a myth to say that the USMCA was going to save all those jobs in the auto industry – it's a myth to say that the USMCA has caused these closures," Ujczo said. "It underscores how the North American auto industry is in a precarious situation and why we needed the changes we see in the new NAFTA."