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from the what-do-you-expect-for-$4.5-billion? dept.
Exclusive: documents show Foxconn refuses to renegotiate Wisconsin deal
Whatever Foxconn is building in Wisconsin, it's not the $10 billion, 22 million-square-foot Generation 10.5 LCD factory that President Trump once promised would be the "eighth wonder of the world." At various points over the last two years, the Taiwanese tech manufacturer has said it would build a smaller LCD factory; that it wouldn't build a factory at all; that it would build an LCD factory; that the company could make any number of things, from screens for cars to server racks to robot coffee kiosks; and so on.
Throughout these changes, one question has loomed: given that Foxconn is building something completely different than that Gen 10.5 LCD facility specified in its original contract with Wisconsin, is it still going to get the record-breaking $4.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies?
Documents obtained by The Verge show that Wisconsin officials have repeatedly — and with growing urgency — warned Foxconn that its current project has veered far from what was described in the original deal and that the contract must be amended if the company is to receive subsidies. Foxconn, however, has declined to amend the contract, and it indicated that it nevertheless intends to apply for tax credits.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday December 14 2019, @12:41PM (4 children)
They're making an inifinitely drawn-out stalling maneuvre to ensure Foxconn doesn't get slapped with sanctions like Huawei and others have. At worst it'll cost them a few tens of millions, at best they may even make money off it. It's a strategically sound move for Foxconn.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday December 14 2019, @01:32PM (3 children)
Unless you're trying to promote the reunification of ROC-Taiwan and the PRC-China, I strongly suggest you avoid sanctioning Taiwanese companies that depend on Chinese production chains while losing in a trade war with China.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @03:32PM (1 child)
Taiwanese companies are producing in China because of subsidies offered by Beijing policy, and the products can be marketed to western purchasers. If that condition no longer holds, they will return production to Taiwan or build up facilities in other countries. Preeminent choices would likely be Malaysia or Thailand in that case.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RamiK on Saturday December 14 2019, @08:03PM
There's a long list of complaints going back and forth between the two nations and so far the WTO been ruling on the subsidies issues mostly in favor of China and against the US: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/business/wto-china-us-trade.html [nytimes.com]
And lets be honest here, the general public might not perceive it as such, but throwing money on Musk and Lockheed to build rockets to the moon and novelty cars that need tax breaks to be affordable for consumers is nothing but a pork dispensary meant to keep engineers in the States with busy work instead of having them work abroad where there's actual infrastructure to build. The WTO aren't idiots. They don't look at the H1B program like some kind of charity work. And when they see at how overpriced smartphones and carrier plans are in the US they aren't thinking like consumers and complaining how unfair it is. They understand it's a policy to use the ISPs to meddle in the smartphone market by having them block cheap phones so Apple can keep cranking out overpriced ones.
Don't go pointing fingers at the Chinese just because their methods are less roundabout.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @05:42PM
I make the best deals; believe me.