Carrier deal that Trump touted hasn’t been finalised yet, officials say

A month after President-elect Donald Trump announced a deal with air conditioning company Carrier to save hundreds of US factory jobs that were slated for Mexico, officials say the agreement has yet to be finalised, and they have released few details about its terms.

The state of Indiana, where the affected jobs are located, agreed to give Carrier up to $7 million in tax credits over 10 years to keep the facility open. Trump and Mike Pence — Indiana’s Republican governor and the vice president-elect — have touted the deal as a victory for their incoming administration and an example of how they’ll jump-start the economy.

However, specifics have been elusive. Trump and the leader of the union that represents the Carrier workers have clashed over the number of jobs saved. It is also unclear whether the company received any federal concessions.

In response to an open-records request from The Washington Post seeking any written communications about the agreement, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, a state agency chaired by Pence, said Indiana law allows it to withhold information until a contract is settled.

The agency has taken this route “to enable effective negotiations on behalf of Hoosiers,” wrote Chris Cotterill, the agency’s general counsel, saying it will take up to three months to finalise the terms of the pact.

Jonathan Bruno, a legal scholar at Harvard University, said the law does not stop the state from providing such records before a final deal, but it does give the option.

“It’s hard to defend the continued secrecy of the deal,” Bruno wrote in an email. “Pence et al. are trying to have it both ways — they’re suggesting that the deal is ready for public consumption by taking credit for one aspect (some indeterminate number of jobs saved), while simultaneously asserting its confidentiality by withholding every other aspect of the terms.”

Some have speculated that Carrier halted its outsourcing plans to protect $5.6 billion in federal contracts held by its parent company, United Technologies. Carrier stayed vague in a November 30 statement: “The incoming Trump-Pence administration has emphasised to us its commitment to support the business community and create an improved, more competitive US business climate. The incentives offered by the state were an important consideration.”

Trump and Pence’s direct involvement, unusual for federal officials, elevates the need for transparency, said Alex Howard, deputy director of the Sunlight Foundation, an open-government advocacy group.

“If there is negotiation going on between the elected representative of the people’s interest and corporations, then that activity should be disclosed,” Howard said.