GM CEO Mary Barra and Trump meet at pivotal moment for automaker

A meeting Thursday between President Donald Trump and General Motors President and CEO Mary Barra at the White House is taking place at a critical juncture for the automaker's business and the auto sector.

The Detroit automaker was selected Tuesday as a lead company alongside Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler to negotiate new contracts with the United Auto Workers union.

It is expected that these four topics will be part of the "far-reaching" discussions that will take place at 1:45 pm. Meeting in the Oval Office, according to two people informed of the meeting. Among the expected participants are Barra, Trump, members of the GM policy team and Larry Kudlow, Trump's chief economic adviser, according to a White House official and an informed person of the meeting.

GM declined to disclose the details of the private meeting, citing "executives meeting policy makers on a regular basis". The White House confirmed the meeting after Reuters announced the meeting on Wednesday night.

Since Trump's election in 2016, GM and other automakers have regularly briefed him and his administration on their operations – from policies to major investment announcements.

Car manufacturers, especially GM, have been very clever in informing the president. He has often criticized or praised automakers' decisions on Twitter – sometimes even before companies have the opportunity to announce their own news.

Less than a week ago, Trump attacked GM for its production sites in China and asked if the automaker should transfer its operations to the United States.

Trump, in a tweet, said GM, "Formerly the giant of Detroit, it is now one of the smallest automakers in the country.They transferred important factories to China, BEFORE I entered in the United States, now they should start coming back to America? "

According to industry data and officials, many claims in the tweet against the Detroit automaker were misleading or inaccurate. A day after Bloomberg News announced that the 46,000 unionized GM workers in the United States were about 9,000 ahead of Ford, Ford and about 1,200 at Fiat Chrysler.

Last month, Trump also called on automakers, particularly Ford, not to support its efforts to return to the energy efficiency rules of new vehicles from the Obama era. He described the car executives as "stupid", said the founders of Ford and GM "are turning around" in the face of the "weakness of the current leaders of the automaker".

The attacks took place after Ford, Honda, BMW and Volkswagen reached a voluntary agreement last month with California on fuel economy standards. The agreement provided for stricter rules on emissions adopted by former President Barack Obama and that Trump had the intention of easing them.

While many manufacturers have supported the re-evaluation of the rules to cope with current market conditions, namely lower gasoline prices, 100% electric vehicles and increased sales of trucks and SUVs, none of Leading builders have backed Trump's plan to return to Obama's era standards.

In the meantime, the administration is preparing a plan for this. Two US agencies are drafting new rules that would revoke California's power to set its own emissions standards and prevent states from setting their own vehicle rules, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing two people informed at the time. topic.

– CNBC Eamon Javers contributed to this report.