White House Ditches Arab-Owned Site for U.S. Jobs Speech. Venue Got Huge Subsidies, Tax Breaks

The White House has switched the venue in upstate New York for President Obama’s speech Tuesday on manufacturing, ditching a plant owned by the government of Abu Dhabi that has received more than $1 billion in state subsidies.

Mr. Obama will speak about the economy at the State University of New York at Albany, highlighting high-tech jobs at the school’s NanoTech Complex. But last week, the local Democratic congressman and others announced that Mr. Obama would speak at GlobalFoundries in Malta, N.Y., a manufacturer of computer chips that employs about 1,300 workers.

White House officials said the site change was made over the weekend for “logistical reasons” and that GlobalFoundries’ officials still would attend the event.

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