President-elect Donald Trump is working to prevent the heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions provider from moving a domestic factory to Mexico.
Donald Trump’s transition team is in talks with Carrier Corp., a heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions provider, over the company possibly keeping its factory in Indianapolis rather than relocating production to Mexico, as announced earlier this year, according to messages on Twitter from the President-elect and the company.
About 1,400 people work at the Carrier plant.
The news follows Ford Motor Co.’s decision last week to reverse course on plans to move production of an SUV model from its Louisville, Ky. assembly plant to one in Mexico. Ford said it notified Trump of the decision in advance and he said his intervention saved U.S. jobs, even though Ford planned to expand production of another model in Louisville without changing employment levels.
During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly lambasted Ford and Carrier for taking advantage of incentives in the North American Free Trade Agreement at the expense of American workers and threatened to jack up duties on their products entering the United States if they followed through with their manufacturing shifts.
Carrier, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., said it was compelled to relocate to Mexico because its competitors and suppliers were moving there as domestic costs increased, in part due to growing regulatory requirements. Trump has made cutting regulations on business a top priority of his incoming administration.
The talks are being led by Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who was the governor of Indiana when Carrier made its decision.
United Technologies is a giant holding company, and canceling Carrier’s Mexico move might be a small concession to Trump given its wide range of holdings that stand to gain from other decisions by a Trump administration.
Carrier Corp. in talks with Trump, reassesses Mexico outsourcing
