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Trump Escalates Threat of Auto Import Tariffs

President Donald Trump—miffed at Canada’s refusal to accept U.S. proposals to reshape the North American Free Trade Agreement—has ratcheted up his threat to impose 25% import tariffs on imported cars and components.
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President Donald Trump—miffed at Canada’s refusal to accept U.S. proposals to reshape the North American Free Trade Agreement—has ratcheted up his threat to impose 25% import tariffs on imported cars and components.

Such tariffs would cover some $208 billion in vehicles and $100 billion in car parts. That volume would be about 30 times the value of the Trump administration’s new import taxes of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum, says Automotive News.

The newspaper cites research by the Washington, D.C.-based Peterson Institute for International Economics. The group predicts that the tariffs would have only a modest impact on the U.S. auto market initially, trimming auto industry productivity 2% and eliminating 20,000 jobs.

But if affected U.S. trade partners retaliate with their own protective taxes, as pundits predict, productivity would fall 4% and 50,000 industry jobs would be lost, according to Peterson.

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