From the wording of the announcement it sounded like it was a project <3 months old at the time. They specifically said it wouldn't be this year too.

Honestly for well over a year now it felt like the Pro was officially canned and ATP podcast reported from an insider that literally no one was working on it as soon as Q4 2016.

My thinking is there was a change of direction internally and a decision the future of Apple still required the talent and community of pro users rather than just embracing the mainstream full on and hoping that pros will be happy with iPads.

I thought the Mac Pro was made in the US, so why would Foxconn even know?