Trump slams Ford's plan to move small car production to Mexico

Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump hit out at Ford Motor Co. for moving its production of small cars to Mexico, saying it should not be permitted to happen.

Speaking in Flint, Michigan, the economically depressed former home of General Motors most recently wracked by a scandal over its contaminated water supplies, Trump said Ford's move was another example of the erosion of US industry helped by open borders for trade with Mexico.

"More bad news for Michigan today," he said.

"It was just announced that Ford is moving all small car production -- all of it, 100 percent -- to Mexico. Over the next two to three years. This just happened. We shouldn't allow it to happen."

Trump was speaking hours after Ford chief executive Mark Fields confirmed to a gathering of investors that the automaker would move all of its US-based small-car production to Mexico over the next two to three years, according to reports from the event.

Ford had already made those plans clear earlier this year, but Fields' statement Wednesday added fresh fuel to the intense fight between Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton to become the next US president.

"It used to be cars were made in Flint and you couldn't drink the water in Mexico. Now the cars are made in Mexico and you can't drink the water in Flint. That's not good," Trump said.

"Our jobs are going to other nations. Our money is going to other nations. We get nothing. We get no tax. We get unemployment. That's about it. Closed factories," he said.

Trump has campaigned on a platform of protecting US industry and jobs by rolling back trade agreements with other countries and building a wall between the United States and Mexico to prevent illegal immigration.