BMW says that it isn’t concerned about the potential tariffs President Trump may slap on Mexican-built vehicles.
Earlier this year, BMW said that it was remaining committed to a new production facility in Mexico that will commence production in 2019 and believes that even if Trump’s possible tariffs affect it, there’s dozens of other countries its Mexican-built models can be exported to.
As a matter of fact, BMW production manager Oliver Zipse recently told German publication Stuttgarter Zeitung that Mexico has free trade agreements with 45 countries.
“It has always been our challenge to deal with it as much as possible and to provide solutions. I could never justify it if we simply reversed a billion [dollar] investment like in Mexico. The reason why we will continue to hold on to Mexico is also that the country has free trade agreements with 45 countries,” he said.
Zipse’s argument is that even if tariffs make it uneconomical to ship Mexican-made vehicles to the United States, there will still be 44 other countries where they can be exported.
What’s more, BMW is also exceptionally comfortable with its U.S. production position. As a matter of fact, its Spartanburg facility is its largest production plant anywhere in the world and in 2016, built 411,000 vehicles.
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