Posted on 02/13/2018 10:54:27 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Trump hails GM's decision to shut South Korea plant
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday hailed General Motors Co.'s decision to shut down a plant in South Korea, saying the carmaker will now "move back" to Detroit.
GM announced the same day that it will close one of its four car assembly plants in South Korea by the end of May due to lower demand for its vehicles. The move came as part of the Detroit-based automaker's broad restructuring program across the world.
"GM Korea company announced today that it will cease production and close its Gunsan plant in May of 2018, and they're going to move back to Detroit," Trump said at a trade-related meeting at the White House.
The facility in Gunsan, 270 kilometers south of Seoul, was underutilized and running at 20 percent of its capacity for the past three years.
"You don't hear these things, except for the fact that Trump became president," Trump said. "Believe me, you wouldn't be hearing that. So they're moving back from Korea to Detroit. They're moving."
Trump has made it one of his pet projects to fix what he calls bad trade deals and "bring back" jobs to the American people.
Again, he slammed the bilateral free trade agreement between South Korea and the U.S., saying it was supposed to produce up to 200,000 jobs for Americans but ended up producing "nothing but losses."
"We have a very bad trade deal with Korea. Very, very bad trade deal," he said. "It's a deal that -- it's incompetent that somebody could have made a deal like that."
The pact took effect in 2012 and negotiations have been under way to amend the deal under Trump.
"We'll either negotiate a fair deal or we're going to terminate the deal," the president said. "But before we do that, already General Motors is coming back into Detroit. That is a really significant statement. Many others to follow from many other countries."
It's "just a fantastic thing" that GM is moving back to Detroit, he added.
Trump also renewed his criticism of countries the U.S. helps defend, citing Saudi Arabia, Japan and South Korea.
"They pay us a fraction of what it costs. And we're talking to all of those countries about that because it's not fair that we defend them, and they pay us a fraction of the cost of that defense," he said.
South Korea currently shoulders about half the burden of keeping some 28,000 U.S. troops on its soil to defend against North Korea. (Yonhap)
P!
The should pick somewhere else in the US. Who would want to work in Detroit. Such a dangerous place now. It is like a third world country.
If the NeverTrump I’m not voting for Trump period media guys had their way none of this would be happening. #Muhfreetradeprinciplesandtheconstitooootion
Korean-made Chevrolets have been very popular in Korea. Don’t know whether this is good news or bad news.
I agree with you on that level. OTOH, whilae car shopping with a pal, we noted a Korean-made Buick.
About $32,000 for a Korean-made Buick?! Quite one thing to pay that sorta scratch for a car made by union types, quite another to pay it for something made in Korea.
I’m happy ROK has the know-how to build these. But I’m still not sure how the free trade aspect works well enough...
Especially so when Buick has mostly foreign market rebrands in their US lineup - Daewoo and Opel being the primary offenders.
Would have been interesting if they let Buick be the international near-luxury brand while letting Oldsmobile be the US brand with Cadillac-lite and Buick-rebranded models.
Other than the GM Hamtramack plant and FCA's plant that made the Viper ( Not sure what is made their now ) that is the only 2 actual physical assembly lines in Detroit. The rest are in the South East burbs of Detroit, in places like Flat Rock, Wayne, Sterling Heights, The Rouge River plant where the F150 is made, google them all and see their distance from Detroit.
As far are Detroit being third world, you should see it, it is a far cry from it's stereo type. Their is a a building boom downtown, hipster types moving in on the cusp of what they think is something new, and smart money was in 5 yrs ago with REIT's to develop a lot of areas. Some of the gentrification has pushed residents and crime to the west side, it might be more concentrated and get more airplay because of it.
“The should pick somewhere else in the US. Who would want to work in Detroit. Such a dangerous place now. It is like a third world country”
Minorities who stayed there will get jobs and in a generation or two will become Republicans. The Democrats are hating this.
I don’t care where Government Motors moves its plants. I’m not buying another GM car unless they reimburse taxpayers $15 billion PLUS interest.
There is nothing in the GM statement that says they’re moving production back to Detroit.
Thy are increas8ng their percentage of domestic production. I think thats what was meant.
The two are completely unrelated. GM said they are closing one of their four assembly plants in Korea. They did not say that they are transferring that work back to the U.S. They aren't. Cars for the Korean market will still be built at the other three plants. So what work is Trump talking about?
I would say he is putting a positive spin on the news. Nothing wrong in using the bully pulpit.
Excellent points.
Going forward, GM won’t have rebranded Opels for Buicks. IIRC, there’s a two or three year window since the company sold off Opel to PSA. As for me, I think the only new GM car I would contemplate buying if I hit the lottery would be a Corvette. The rest of the lines do nothing for me.
Most likely, Buick will continue to be Cadillac-lite. Great, if you’re into that. A pal some years back bought a Lucerne spec’d out with everything the same line Cadillac had. He ended up paying $15K less, just because of the Buick name on the car.
Business schools should make GM *the* case study on how to destroy a strategy of differentiated brands.
Apparently, not as popular as GM would like. From the excerpt: "The facility in Gunsan, 270 kilometers south of Seoul, was underutilized and running at 20 percent of its capacity for the past three years."
“South Korea currently shoulders about half the burden of keeping some 28,000 U.S. troops on its soil to defend against North Korea. (Yonhap)”
And 100% of its own defense costs while spending almost 3/4 billion on U.S. military hardware.
And, though there is no immediate threat hanging over Japan or Germany, the U.S. has fewer troops in South Korea than it does in either Japan or Germany.
The article does not mention where the GMK cars are sold. I doubt they are imported back to the states. If they are building GM cars for Koreans, then this is not such a good deal.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.