LANCASTER, Ohio _ Vice President Mike Pence touted a strong U.S. economy and urged Congress to ratify a trade agreement the Trump Administration signed last year with Canada and Mexico during a stop in Lancaster for the groundbreaking of a new car seat manufacturing facility.
Pence spoke Tuesday about replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement with a deal the Trump administration is seeking among the United States, Canada and Mexico to about 300 invited guests at the groundbreaking for Novi, Mich.-based Magna Seating's new seat manufacturing facility at the Rock Mill industrial park in Lancaster.
Magna plans to locate 300 jobs in a 150,000-square-foot building that it will lease in the industrial park. The company expects to make a total investment of $60 million, which includes lease payments and about $14.5 million in equipment, said Scott Worden, a company spokesman.
"I don't think I have to tell people here across the Midwest what we learned together since NAFTA was signed into law. The truth is NAFTA had an impact on our communities that in many cases can be described as hollowing out historic jobs," Pence said.
The White House has touted the USMCA as an agreement that would encourage more goods and materials be manufactured in the U.S., modernize intellectual property rules and give American farmers greater market access abroad.
Ohio's top export to Canada and Mexico in 2017 was, by far, transportation equipment, totaling $7.9 billion, according to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. The second largest export was chemicals at $2.9 billion. Ohio exported about $25.4 billion to those countries in 2017.
The Republican National Committee said in a statement that the agreement would create 76,000 automotive manufacturing jobs and incentives production in the U.S.
"The groundbreaking of Magna International is just the latest sign that strong Republican leadership is working for the Buckeye State, and the USMCA would only continue to benefit Ohio. This trade deal negotiated by President Trump delivers on his promise to stand up for Ohio workers who have been unfairly taken advantage of by other countries. President Trump continues to keep his word to Ohioans, which is exactly why he will be re-elected in 2020," the RNC said in a statement.
Magna International CEO Don Walker said he is "concerned" about the effect that congressional inaction on the USMCA could have on manufacturing in the U.S.
"As an automotive company we're in favor of (USMCA) passing in order to bring more clarity and certainty to the market. Obviously the administration is also in favor of it passing. One of his campaign promises was to renegotiate NAFTA and come out with a new deal. So this is the new deal.
"We're in favor of getting it done, getting it passed so it brings more certainty and clarity to the market," Worden said. "The way it is right now, investment slows down and less people and less dollars want to get in the game when they don't necessarily know what the rules of the game are."
Magna will build the "bones inside the seat" at its Lancaster facility when it opens in the first quarter of 2020, Worden said.
The company, whose parent Magna International is based in Ontario, Canada, shuttered its Lordstown facility earlier this year when General Motors announced that it would no longer build the Chevrolet Cruze sedan there.
Magna's Lordstown facility was dedicated solely to providing seats for the Cruze, Worden said, so it had to close the facility when GM decided to idle the plant and lay off 120 workers.
"This was really a different business. This one is structures only" to be distributed to other Magna Seating manufacturing operations and other suppliers for finishing, Worden said. Those seat structures ultimately will end up in vehicles built by major auto manufacturers, he said.
