White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said U.S. President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order Tuesday to provide some relief to an automotive industrybesieged by multiple tariffs.
Leavitt did not provide details about the action but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump is committed to bringing automobile manufacturing back to the United States.
"We want to give the automakers a path to that quickly, efficiently, and create as many jobs as possible," Bessent said during a White House briefing.
Trump slapped a 25 per cent tariff on vehicle imports to the United States earlier this month. Automakers are also being hit with 25 per cent duties on aluminum and steel, as well as the president's 10 per cent universal tariffs and 145 per cent levies on Chinese imports.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the change Monday and said companies paying the automobile tariffs won't see other levies — including the ones on steel and aluminum — stacked on top of each other.
The Wall Street Journal also reported Trump will ease sometariffs on foreign parts used to manufacture cars in the U.S, and modify duties on auto parts which were expected to go into place May 3.
"I’m not going to go into the details of the auto tariff relief but I can tell you that it will go substantially toward reshoring American auto manufacturing," Bessent said.
It's not immediately clear what the full impact of the change will be for Canada's auto industry, which received a partial carve-out from Trump's tariffs for vehicles compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, called CUSMA. The current duties only hit the value of the non-American parts of vehicles finished in Canada.
Bessent said Trump had meetings with domestic and foreign auto producers.
General Motors chair and CEO Mary Barra said the company appreciates "the productive conversations" with the president and his administration and looks forward "to continuing towork together."
"We believe the president's leadership is helping level the playing field for companies like GM and allowing us to invest even more in the U.S. economy," Barra said in an emailed statement in response to the White House announcement.
Six of the auto industry's largest lobbying groups sent a letter to the Trump administration last week urging tariff relief and warning of supply chain disruption and higher prices. The letter said "most auto suppliers are not capitalized for an abrupt tariff induced disruption."
"Many are already in distress and will face production stoppages, layoffs and bankruptcy," said the letter, which was signed by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents every major automaker in the United States except Tesla Inc.
The announcement comes as Trump is set to travel later Tuesday to Michigan, the heart of America's automobileindustry, for a rally to mark his administration's first 100 days.
The state is home to the Detroit Three — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, now part of Stellantis — all of which have been pushing the president against tariffs that are upending the deeply integrated North American automobileindustry.
Stellantis chairman John Elkann said the company appreciates the tariff relief.
"While we further assess the impact of the tariff policies on our North American operations, we look forward to our continued collaboration with the U.S. administration tostrengthen a competitive American auto industry and stimulate exports," Elkann said in an emailed statement.
Trump has claimed Canada is taking American automobile jobs but the two countries have been developing the industry in tandem since the early 1900s. Integration was deepened with the 1965 Auto Pact trade deal between Canada and the U.S.
CUSMA, negotiated during the first Trump administration, increased protections for the automobile industry. Vehicles can cross the border multiple times before completion and Trump's tariffs have led to confusion and concern on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.
Anderson Economic Group, a Michigan consulting firm, estimated earlier this month that an extra US$5,000 could be added to the cost of the lowest-tariffed American cars, and up to US$12,000 to the price of full-sized SUVs. Trump's tariffs have since changed rapidly.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Evan Vucci
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