/>ihis week, President Donald Trump made remarks during a press conference indicating that he was planning to impose tariffs “in the neighborhood of 25 percent” on imported automobiles, perhaps as early as April 2. It was unclear whether the targeted automobile tariffs are related to the so-called “reciprocal tariffs” that are being studied by the government across all products from all countries.
During this week's press conference, the president expressed his understanding that the European Union has already lowered its tariffs on imported automobiles from 10 percent to 2.5 percent. However, the EU has released an FAQ indicating that it has made no such concession, and pointing out that the U.S. imposes a 25 percent tariff on pickup trucks.
The auto tariff referenced in this week's press conference is reminiscent of the findings of the Section 232 investigation of imported automobiles performed during President Trump's first administration. Although that investigation concluded that imports of automobiles harmed U.S. national security, the recommended 25-35 percent tariff was never imposed.
Car plants are being canceled in other locations now because they want to build them here. And you read about a couple — not that I want to mention names or anything — but you read about a couple of big ones in Mexico just got canceled because they’re going to be building them in the United States. And that’s very simply because of what we’re doing with respect to taxes, tariffs, and incentives.
