Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday attributed Ford Motor’s decision to close its three plants in Brazil to the end of multibillion-dollar subsidies provided by the government.
“What does Ford want? Ford has yet to tell the truth, right? They want subsidies,” Bolsonaro said during a talk with supporters recorded on video and posted on social media.
Bolsonaro levied criticism on the decision of previous administrations to subsidize the industry with taxpayer money and lamented the loss of 5,000 jobs in the country.
Ford is yet to reply these comments by Bolsonaro.
On Monday, Ford said it would close its plants in Brazil this year, two of them immediately, and take pretax charges of about $4.1 billion as the coronavirus crisis amplified the automakers’ underutilization of its manufacturing capacity.
Ford officials said shutting down the plant is part of the $11 billion global restructuring previously forecast by the automaker.
