Foxconn factory jobs touted by Trump will not come to pass

Economic development officials and other supporters of the project urged patience, saying Foxconn still plans to invest what it promised. The White House had no immediate comment.

Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple, is the world’s largest contract maker of electronics.

Louis Woo, special assistant to Foxconn’s CEO, was quoted as telling Reuters that it is scaling back and possibly shelving plans to build display screens in Wisconsin because “we can’t compete.”

Woo said that instead of a factory, Foxconn wants to create a “technology hub,” with about three-quarters of the jobs in research and development and design. Those jobs typically go to college graduates. The plant is under construction and scheduled to open in 2020.

Marc Levine, senior fellow and founding director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Center of Economic Development, called it “one enormous bait-and-switch.” And he scoffed at the idea that Foxconn, known for manufacturing, could transform into a research and development giant.

“That’s simply not what Foxconn is,” Levine said in an email. “So the notion that there will be 13,000 research jobs at Foxconn is highly, highly unlikely.”

The company initially billed the massive 20 million-square-foot (1.86 million-square-meter) Wisconsin complex as its first North American manufacturing site for the next generation of display panels to be used in a wide variety of products, including large-screen TVs, self-driving cars, notebooks and other monitors.

Wisconsin state and local governments promised roughly $4 billion to Foxconn, the richest incentive package in state history and the biggest pledged by a state to a foreign corporation in U.S. history. Foxconn was required to invest $10 billion and create 13,000 jobs to get the full incentives.

It had already fallen short last year, hiring 178 full-time employees rather than the 260 targeted, and failed to earn a state tax credit worth up to $9.5 million.

Former Gov. Scott Walker, the Republican who brokered the deal, emphasized in a tweet Wednesday that Foxconn earns tax credits only for actual investment and job creation. “No jobs/investment? No credits. Period,” Walker tweeted.

Republican legislative leaders who pushed the project blamed new Democratic Gov. Tony Evers for Foxconn’s change in plans. They said he had created an air of economic uncertainty by supporting elimination of a manufacturing tax credit program.

Evers was critical of Foxconn in the campaign against Walker but did not pledge to undo the deal. His top aide Joel Brennan said that the administration was surprised by the news from Foxconn. He did not address the accusations Evers was to blame.

Democratic critics said the incentives promised to Foxconn were too rich, and they questioned whether the company would ever fulfil its promises.

The president of Wisconsin’s Technology Council, Tom Still, said he is not surprised Foxconn wants to change course since televisions are becoming less expensive and iPhone sales are declining.

Still, whose group nurtures technology in Wisconsin, said Foxconn can succeed if the plant becomes more research-oriented because its areas of interest match up with Wisconsin’s strengths, such as robotics, medical imaging and industrial imaging.

Last summer, Trump highlighted his economic policies at a groundbreaking event for the Foxconn complex.

“Made in the USA: It’s all happening and it’s happening very, very quickly,” the president said in June after visiting the Foxconn site. “Today we’re seeing the results of the pro-America agenda.”

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For the Latest on Foxconn: https://bit.ly/2TodcPE

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Follow Scott Bauer on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sbauerAP

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Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Washington and Ivan Moreno in Milwaukee contributed to this report.

Scott Bauer, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Foxconn factory jobs touted by Trump will not come to pass

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