Business Foxconn says it will actually build factory, cites "conversation" with Trump

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Business
Foxconn says it will actually build factory, cites “conversation” with Trump
The Tainwanese company seems to have changed its mind again.

By Danielle Paquette
February 1 at 2:19 PM

Two days after Foxconn said it no longer planned to build a sprawling new factory in Wisconsin, the Taiwanese technology giant appears to have reversed course, citing a “personal conversation” with President Trump.

The surprise announcement followed heavy backlash in Wisconsin, which agreed to pay the prominent electronics maker and supplier to Apple at least $3 billion in state tax incentives in exchange for up to 13,000 blue-collar jobs and a $10-billion display-making plant in the state’s southeastern corner.

“After productive discussions between the White House and the company, and after a personal conversation between President Donald J. Trump and Chairman Terry Gou, Foxconn is moving forward with our planned construction of a Gen 6 fab facility, which will be at the heart of the Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park,” the company said in a statement Friday. “This campus will serve both as an advanced manufacturing facility as well as a hub of high technology innovation for the region.”

Foxconn declined to comment on how Friday’s decision was reached and when hiring is expected to begin. ... “Great news on Foxconn in Wisconsin after my conversation with Terry Gou!” Trump tweeted Friday. ... The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

[The Foxconn deal isn't expected to make money for 25 years] (1)
....

Danielle Paquette is a reporter focusing on national labor issues. Before joining The Washington Post in 2014, she covered crime for the Tampa Bay Times in St. Petersburg, Fla. Follow https://twitter.com/dpaqreport

(1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/09/the-foxconn-deal-trump-championed-wont-make-wisconsin-money-for-25-years/

Read more: Link to sourcehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/02/01/foxconn-says-it-will-actually-build-factory-cites-conversation-with-trump/

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David Fahrenthold Retweeted

https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

Foxconn says it will actually build factory, cites “conversation” with Trump

Link to tweet

[IronLionZion]

1. Or Trump's people told them to waffle a bit so he can look like a hero

and take credit for these jobs

[olegramps]

24. How economically sound are these offers that provide billions in tax relief?

It appears that the citizens are going to be taxed to get jobs. It must be very attractive if the any company agrees to these types of deals. It is analogous to the NFL whose owners get the citizens to build a football stadiums and they reap all the benefits. They sell it on the win-win argument, but is it really profitable for the citizens. The Sunday Super Bowl is an example that many critics say will cost the city millions. When I lived in Colorado the citizens rejected the holding of the Winter Olympics after the true costs were public.

[IronLionZion]

25. It's often a money loser for the taxpayers

It's essentially using tax dollars to buy jobs. And companies can often threaten to move and get more tax breaks to stay. Boeing does that to Seattle all the time.

[getagrip_already]

2. probably threatened to let china have taiwan....

Yeah, if you don't make me look good, and invest im me personally (hint, I want money directly), I might just step aside when jina threatens you again.....

[wasupaloopa]

3. That is my guess too.

[atreides1]

8. Doubt if that would concern them!

Foxconn's largest factory is in China...that's a good indicator that Foxconn and the Chinese government don't have any problems!

[getagrip_already]

11. Then maybe he offered to sell out taiwan to china?

Nothing would surprise me.....

[Squinch]

4. Never going to happen.

[Jim__]

5. I'm sure that this promise is much more reliable than the last promise they made.

[Canoe52]

6. I've seen this before, they will hire a couple of guys on bulldozers to

push dirt around and claim it's under construction for the next 6 months or so.

[keithbvadu2]

13. Plenty of time to change their minds - again.

Plenty of time to change their minds - again.

[truthisfreedom]

7. 45 involved in a business deal? It's doa. The art of the fail.

[DeminPennswoods]

9. Apparently they make a lot of components for Apple

With Apple products having stagnant sales, FoxxConn is readjusting their business accordingly. Apple is driving the cart here, not Trump.

[PeeJ52]

10. It's like the deficit... He told them to just say they are going to do it, then quit after he leaves

office. Anything they say they are going to do probably wouldn't show up for years anyway. Where are they going to get 15,000 workers at 4% unemployment anyway. It was BS, It's still BS, It will always be BS...

[keithbvadu2]

12. Import workers from China? Saying they can't find American workers.

[WhoWoodaKnew]

14. I would tell Trump the same thing, drag my feet, and then poof he's out of office

[LakeSuperiorView]

15. Building the factory is not the end of your obligations. Jobs was the reason you got tax breaks.

Discussing bait and switch tactics with Dipshit doesn't get you any favors. You need to open the factory and employ the people or the tax breaks all revert.

Wisconsin is going to be left with a deserted ultra wally world husk that won't be suitable for any use. Monument to their folly for Walker.

[Eugene]

16. Foxconn is even less credible than Trump on this.

I suspect Reply #6 is the likely outcome (a Trumpian tactic from Art of the Deal).

Once the media spotlight fades, this factory will vanish.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

17. Place your bets on the SOTU being a brag-a-thon.

Couldn't pay me to watch it. My news sites being saturated with it for a week will be bad enough.....

[erpowers]

18. Not Buying The Change of Decision

I may be wrong, but I do not think that is how business decisions are made. One day you announce a decision and then two days later you reverse that decision after talking to a few people. Either this was planned to go this way before the first announcement was made, or Foxconn demanded and got more concessions from the Trump White House. What changed to make this all of a sudden a good deal again?

[PSPS]

19. Is there much demand for LCD displays anymore?

[JohnnyRingo]

20. Let's not overlook the good news here

At least they're hiring hourly workers now. I don't care about their claims of being Trumpified, they could say Satan made them do it for all I care.

Unfortunately, the victory lap will be insufferable, but we'll get through it.

[EarthFirst]

21. +1

Families will benefit from this.

A win is a win.

[kacekwl]

22. Trump, do whatever you want because I will

tell everyone I saved the deal that you agreed to in the 1st place. Then in a year you can make up some other reason you can't do this or that blah, blah, blah. What would trump do ? Lie of course.

[KWR65]

23. I'm sure the stock holders are thrilled with the statements by the wishy washy COO and CEO

[Bengus81]

26. Trump told them to keep the 13,000 job LIE going for awhile longer..............

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

27. Oh, yes, *of course* we're going to build a factory!

[dalton99a]

28. Foxconn must have read his book

One of Trump’s favorite stories was about how he had tricked the company that owned Holiday Inn into becoming his partner in an Atlantic City casino. Trump claimed that he had quieted executives’ fears of construction delays by ordering his construction supervisor to make a vacant lot that he owned look like “the most active construction site in the history of the world.” As Trump tells it in “The Art of the Deal,” there were so many dump trucks and bulldozers pushing around dirt and filling holes that had just been dug that when Holiday Inn executives visited the site it “looked as if we were in the midst of building the Grand Coulee Dam.” The stunt, Trump claimed, pushed the deal through.

[Honeycombe8]

29. So it got promised a basket of goodies? After it gets the goodies, it's does a "Carrier" turnabout.

These corporations don't change big plans like that, I think. They can put them off, though. Like Carrier did.

It's the same thing again, looks like.