Liar.
OMG, was Mitt Romney right that Chrysler is moving American jobs to China to produce Jeeps there? There are, after all,
headlines coming out of the North American International Auto Show along the lines of "Chrysler close to deal to build Jeeps in China." But no, this is in fact not new information at all, and Romney's last-minute pre-trouncing lies remain outrageous.
See, Romney's lie that Chrysler was "thinking of moving all production to China" was founded on an accurate report that Chrysler was expanding into the Chinese market and would be manufacturing Jeeps in China to sell in China. And that's what this week's stories are about:
Chrysler Group LLC expects to complete a preliminary agreement this quarter to make Jeep brand sport-utility vehicles in China for sale in that market, Mike Manley, Jeep’s chief, said today in an interview.
"In China
for sale in that market." As we said
all along. And as Marcy Wheeler put
in context at the time:
China still slaps huge tariffs on cars made outside of the country, so to be viable in the world’s largest automotive market, you have to build in China. That is the crux of the argument American car companies (and Midwestern politicians) have been making for decades: while the US allows imports from all countries, Japan and Korea and now China make it very difficult to export to those countries. This is not fair trade.
And in fact, having added 1,100 workers on a Jeep assembly line in Michigan in October, Chrysler is adding another 1,100 in Ohio in the fall. So if you hear from any of the Republicans in your life that Mitt Romney was right, those are the facts, and Romney is still a liar.