Mary Barra
Update, 11:35 a.m. Tuesday: President Donald Trump tells the top bosses of the Big Three U.S. auto companies that he wants to ease regulations to help them, the Detroit News reports.
Trump wants a regulatory climate that “makes the process simpler for the auto industry," he says. "I think you’re going to see it go from inhospitable to extremely hospitable.”
Original article, Tuesday morning:
At the North American Auto Show in Detroit this month, Donald Trump's name often surfaced among the media, and it was about how anxious the auto industry was to please him.
On Tuesday, Ford Motor Co. President and CEO Mark Fields, General Motors Co. Chairman and CEO Mary Barra and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV CEO Sergio Marchionne will meet for breakfast talked with the president about how to bring more American jobs back to the industry.
Keith Laing and Melissa Burden of The Detroit News report:
The meeting should give the auto executives a chance to press their case about jobs they have created in the U.S. in recent years, and how interconnected their plants in Mexico are with U.S. operations.
In recent days, Trump has repeated a campaign pledge to renegotiate or withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which critics in Michigan and elsewhere argue has cost the auto industry thousands of jobs since its enactment in the 1990s, even though the evidence is mixed.
The flurry of activity on Monday came after Trump said Sunday he will begin talks with the leaders of Mexico and Canada to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. The new president would have to give the countries six months’ notice of his intent to withdraw from the 1994 agreement.
