... if they go forward with building a plant in Baja California to make Corollas to sell into the US. This appears to have been a knee-jerk reaction that demonstrates how little he really knows.
Although it does have several manufacturing plants here, Toyota is not an American company. The plant they are building in Baja (which will manufacture light trucks, not Corollas) is going to replace another plant in Canada. No American jobs were ever involved or threatened by the decision.
It's one thing to try to bully American companies into not moving jobs to another country; it's something else altogether to try to bully a foreign company into building a plant here employing American workers, and threatening heavy tariffs if they don't comply.
Not to mention that as President, Trump will have ZERO power to impose the punitive tariffs he likes to talk about - that power belongs to Congress, and it's not something he can just do with an Executive Order. Speaker Ryan has said multiple times recently that he has no interest in starting a trade war with anyone, so Trump's threats are empty.
But it probably really sells good to his supporters... |
