Ford CEO Jim Farley said a North American free trade deal is necessary for the automaker and the industry, hours after President Trump called it “irrelevant.”
“We really see Canada, Mexico and the United States as an integrated manufacturing system. And that is how we will approach this negotiation. It is very crucial for us, but we need revisions,” he declared on the sidelines of an event at the Detroit Auto Show on Tuesday night.
The USMCA will be reviewed this year to decide whether it will be allowed to expire or another agreement will be drawn up.
Last year, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on cars imported from those countries, although he also allowed workarounds that reduced the levies.
“We could have it or not, I wouldn’t care,” Trump said Tuesday at a Ford plant.
Read: The USMCA has no real advantage, it is irrelevant: Trump
Ford CEO Bill Ford spoke about the regulatory whiplash the automaker faced, including fluctuating tariffs, loosening emissions rules and uncertainty surrounding the USMCA.
“It’s a sport we’ve participated in my entire career. If I had a perfect world, which I never will, we would have some certainty in the regulations,” he said.
Ford leaders also talked about affordability, an issue Trump sought to address during his visit to Detroit.
Bill Ford said the company needs to offer more entry-level options for consumers as the average transaction price for a new vehicle has risen to about $50,000 by some analyst estimates.
More context: Sheinbaum is ‘convinced’ that the trade relationship with the US will continue despite criticism from Trump
“Affordability is an important issue, one that we talk about a lot internally and, in fact, we have a lot of plans to address,” Ford said, citing the automaker’s launch of a $30,000 electric pickup truck in 2027 and noting that more solutions will be announced.
Farley cited the issue of affordability as one of his top concerns for 2026: “We should all be very careful about consumer demand.”
With information from Reuters
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