Ford CEO says trade deal with Mexico and Canada is 'critical' for industry

By Nora Eckert

DETROIT, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Ford CEO Jim Farley said a North American free trade deal is needed for the automaker and industry, ​hours after U.S. President Trump called it "irrelevant."

"We really see Canada and ‌Mexico and the U.S. as an integrated manufacturing system. And that's how we're going to approach this ‌negotiation. Very critical for us, but we need revisions," Farley said on the sidelines of an event at the Detroit Auto Show on Tuesday evening.

The trade deal, called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, is up for review this year to decide whether ⁠it will be left to ‌expire or another agreement will be worked out.

Trump last year imposed 25% tariffs on autos imported from those countries, while also ‍allowing for workarounds that have reduced the levies.

"We could have it or not, it wouldn’t matter to me,” Trump said, speaking at a Ford plant on Tuesday.

Bill Ford, Ford's executive ​chair, spoke about the regulatory whiplash the automaker faced, including fluctuating tariffs, ‌loosening emissions rules and uncertainty around USMCA.

"It's a game we've been in my whole career. If I had a perfect world, which I never will, we'd have some certainty in regulations," he said.

The Ford leaders also spoke about affordability, an issue that Trump sought to address during his visit to Detroit.

Bill Ford said the company ⁠needs to offer more entry-level options for ​consumers, as the average transaction price for a ​new vehicle has climbed to near $50,000 according to some analyst estimates.

"Affordability is a big issue, and it's one we talk about a ‍lot internally, and we ⁠actually have a lot of plans to address that," Ford said, citing the automaker's launch of a $30,000 electric pickup in 2027, and noting that ⁠more solutions would be announced.

Farley cited the affordability issue as one of his main concerns for ‌2026. "We should all be very careful about consumer demand," he said.

(Reporting ‌by Nora Eckert; Editing by Mike Colias)