Foxconn Technology Group’s investments in the US have fallen short of promises made in 2017, when US President Donald Trump hailed the firm’s promises to build a factory as a sign of America’s manufacturing revival.
Politicians had said the deal could eventually generate 13,000 new jobs.
But it has brought fewer than 300 jobs so far – well below initial targets, Wisconsin officials have said.
Foxconn had already said it was changing its plans for the plant.
Wisconsin officials identified the job numbers to date in a letter denying Foxconn tax breaks, which the state awarded to the firm, a major Apple supplier, as part of the 2017 deal.
The incentives were conditional on the firm meeting certain investment and job creation goals and generated significant controversy in Wisconsin, an important state in the US electoral calculus.
The move by state officials to withhold the tax breaks comes just weeks before voters in the US head to the polls to decide if Mr Trump deserves a second term as president.
Mr Trump, whose campaign slogan in 2016 was “Make America Great Again”, has sought to present his time in office as a boon for the US economy.
But even before the economic collapse triggered by the pandemic, employment in the manufacturing sector had remained relatively flat.
Democrats in Wisconsin seized on the figures as further proof of deal-making gone awry, noting that the state had spent $1bn supporting the project.
“This cements Foxconn’s legacy as one of broken promises, a lack of transparency and a complete failure to create jobs,” said Wisconsin State Representative Gordon Hintz, a leader of Democrats in the state and a critic of the project. “Republican politicians should be held accountable.”