One thing was the threatening but meatless Donald Trump campaign promises — “post-truths,” as Oxford dictionary labeled them — and something else is established productive reality.
Also, Trump is sending a message to Mexico regarding the dreaded future of the United States removing itself from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Today, Thursday Dec. 1, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and his vice-president Mike Pence will be in Indianapolis visiting the local air-conditioned manufacturing plant where the boisterous Trump will salute to keeping the plant from moving operations and local jobs to Monterrey, Mexico.
Trump will be crying “victory” in favor of the blue collar class. And in a way it is, but like in all win-win negotiations, Carrier Distribution got away with this battle with a good standing image for the next four years with the U.S. government and the state of Indiana.
The Carrier plant will not be moved over a three year maturity plan, as the corporation had planned, but nevertheless, keeping the Indianapolis plant will not prevent them from opening up their fifth manufacturing facility in Mexico, where they have been operation since the late 1940s and enjoy excellent prestige as a fine air-conditioner manufacturer.
Manuel Gutiérrez, Mexico Carrier Distribution Director, commented that “we’re going to continue with our growth plans” and that like any other business, “the company is looking for competitive advantages.”
In short, the message to Donald Trump echoed the wise words of President Calvin Coolidge that “the business of America is business.”
And future vice-president Pence, but still governor of Indiana, had to admit to easing on the state government’s over regulating policies — some of them his — which are the true source of U.S. companies moving out of the United States in search of more cushioned operational environments.
The state of Indiana, in the case of Carrier, will be more business friendly and relax its stiff corporate taxation codes.
The important message to Mexican industrialists and the true NAFTA participants, exporters and importers, is that maybe Mr. Trump is not the big bad racist, bigot wolf he portrayed himself as during the electoral campaign. It was just one more of his vote-winning jests.
The fact that hit Trump in the current reality is that U.S. companies have for long expanded operations to Mexico and the U.S. government is there to defend them, not to destroy them.
The Carrier news is both good for the U.S. blue collar vote and Mexican industrialists. This is the first sign that things will not be as bad as they seemed a couple of weeks ago.
In fact, the bellwether think-tank Private Sector Center for Economic Studies (CEESP) in its weekly economic analysis issued a statement that the Trump scare in Mexico should not be so and that Mexicans are thinking negatively regarding as to what may happen to NAFTA.
Beyond “chaos scenarios” CEESP sees Mexico getting its act together and “actualizing” (“modernizing,” President Peña Nieto said) many of the issues that have gotten rusty in the 22-years NAFTA has been in place.
“This is the correct moment for Mexico to make an evaluation of the advantages, having one of the world’s most open economies means, and put in place the needed measures to strengthen that position,” the weekly analysis says.
It adds that all the benefits obtained by both nations since it went into effect “can’t be thrown overboard” and that surely commerce authorities in the United States will not carry out moves that may hurt their own industries.
It is no small fry that Mexico is the third sourcing nation for the United States and also the third main buyer of U.S. products in trade that nowadays surpasses the $500 billion dollars a year, and growing.
So Trump’s todays self-touting (his specialty) great deed for U.S. workers should be taken at face value because in reality, nothing will change except that Carrier will not totally cancel its Indianapolis plant, but it will still open up its new and long-planned facility in Monterrey.
The boy, says the old tale, cried wolf, but the wolf Mexicans are now calling Trumpo just isn’t there to destroy, but to keep another campaign trail promise: make money for the United States of America.
And this is one he can’t fail at! And in doing that, Mexico wins too.
