BMW says will focus on investment plans despite border taxes threats

BMW will adhere to its investment plans for Mexico and the United States regardless of cautions from President Donald Trump to enforce border taxes on vehicles imported into the United States, the luxury automaker’s CEO stated.

“We need free world trade,” BMW CEO Harald Krueger told an automotive congress in Bochum on Wednesday, including that BMW would likewise continue to invest in its U.S. Spartanburg plant.

Krueger stated that BMW exported 70 percent of annual production at its Spartanburg plant, where it makes over 400,000 vehicles every year, making it the nation’s biggest net-exporter.

Trump last month alerted the United States would enforce a border tax of 35 percent on imported vehicles.

Germany’s three leading automamakers, Volkswagen, Daimler (DAIGn.DE) and BMW, have invested greatly in Mexico where production costs are lower than in the United States, aiming to export smaller sized automobiles to the world’s 2nd biggest vehicle market.