US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced plans to impose sweeping 25 percent tariffs on cars from overseas, days before he is expected to announce wide-ranging levies on other goods from around the world.
“What we’re going to be doing is a 25 percent tariff for all cars that are not made in the United States,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We start off with a 2.5 percent base, which is what we’re at, and go to 25 percent.”
The announcement drew swift condemnation from the EU and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who called it a “direct attack” on Canadian workers.
Photo: AFP
“We will defend our workers, we will defend our companies, we will defend our country and we will defend it together,” Carney said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, described the move as “bad for businesses, worse for consumers.”
Trump later threatened further tariffs if the EU worked with Canada “in order to do economic harm to the USA.”
Writing on his own social media platform, Truth Social, he said if they did so, “large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!”
In Taipei, the government is still clarifying the exact details of the planned tariffs, but would assist affected industries if necessary, Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) said yesterday at a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee.
Taiwan currently has about NT$3.1 billion (US$93.6 million) in auto-related exports to the US, of which more than 90 percent are all-terrain vehicles with engines of 1,000cc or less, Chuang said.
The government is still working to clarify whether these products would be subject to the tariffs, but if they are, the Ministry of Economic Affairs would likely work with affected companies to mitigate the tariffs’ impact, Chuang said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said his government was considering “appropriate measures” in response to the announcement.
“Naturally, we will consider all options,” he added.
South Korea’s auto sector would face “considerable difficulties” when the tariffs came into effect and the government was planning an emergency response by next month, South Korean Minister of Industry, Trade and Energy Ahn Duk-geun told a meeting of industry officials yesterday.
The tariffs would go into effect on Wednesday next week, Trump said, adding that the US would begin collecting them the following day.
“This is very exciting,” he said, suggesting the move would spur economic growth.
Trump last month floated the idea of a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles, but offered no other details. The president on Monday hinted that the auto industry levies could come in “the very near future”.
Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Germany are among the top car exporters to the US.
White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf said the new car tariffs would result in more than US$100 billion in annual revenue to the US.
On April 2 — a day Trump has dubbed “liberation day” — the US president is expected to unveil a wide range of so-called reciprocal tariffs: levies on imported goods that the Trump administration argues are unfairly taxed by the US’s trading partners.
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