Shanghai: The meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week is encouraging and sets the stage for the world’s two largest economies to strengthen ties, said Ford Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields.
“When you have two leaders meet face to face, they become people to each other,” Fields said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Shanghai on Saturday. “That’s a very firm foundation to then go off and make concrete advances to strengthen the ties between the two countries. I feel that’s very possible.”
Worsening relations between the US and China would be detrimental for companies like Ford, which is looking to sell more pickup trucks in the world’s largest auto market and recently announced it will build its luxury Lincoln vehicles in the Asian nation to tap on growing demand.
In their public comments, the two presidents remarked generally about “progress” in their relationship and optimism about the future. That could indicate that the relationship between the two countries remains stable, despite Trump’s fiery accusations during his campaign, and afterward, that China has stolen US manufacturing jobs.
On China’s policy of requiring foreign automakers to set up joint ventures in order to manufacture vehicles and tariffs on imported cars, Fields said that tangible reforms and opening up are needed. The issue is bigger than the 50 per cent limit on foreign ownership of the ventures, he said, and there’s the need to decrease policy uncertainties, boost business confidence and create equal opportunities for each nation at the same time.
Mutual ties
“There’s huge, enormous mutual ties between the two countries from a trade standpoint,” Fields said before an event to outline Ford’s strategy to boost pickup sales in China. “We have to tread very carefully on that because the economic relationship is the basis of the overall relationship.”
Ford said on Thursday that it’s targeting for 70 per cent of all Ford nameplates sold in China by 2025 to be part or fully electric. The company will introduce a plug-in hybrid and battery-electric SUV in China, and plans to manufacture electrified power trains by 2020. The investments in electrification in China are part of efforts to position the automaker with the trend of stricter emission standards, Fields said.
Fields says he sees “huge opportunities” to increase pickup truck sales in China, which has been easing restrictions on pickup usage in city centers. The automaker plans to introduce its best-selling Built Ford Tough truck brand to the country and will announce plans to start selling the Ford Ranger mid-size pickup there from 2018.
