Ford Decides to Kill Plan to Sell a Chinese Made Vehicle in the U.S.

Ford’s head of North American operations announced on Friday that the automaker has killed a plan to sell a Chinese made vehicle in the U.S, citing the potential of higher U.S. tariffs.

President Donald Trump has threatened to impose import duties on another $200 billion in Chinese goods which could happen as early as next week.

Currently there are already duties on Chinese-made vehicles of up to 25 percent and the President is separately evaluating a proposal to impose tariffs on all imported vehicles on national security grounds.

Ford’s Focus Active, which is made in China, would have been launched in the U.S. market next year. Scraping the plans to launch it will not have a big impact on the company’s U.S. sales nor would it cost any jobs, according to Ford North America chief Kumar Galhotra.

“It basically boils down to how we deploy our resources,” Galhotra said.

With the tariffs, the Focus Active’s costs in the U.S. “would be substantially higher,” Galhotra remarked.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and have not been compensated for this article.