President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation Wednesday announcing a new set of tariffs on imported automobiles and automobile parts. The tariffs, which are aimed at foreign-produced passenger vehicles, light trucks, and certain key automotive parts, are intended to strengthen America’s industrial base and protect U.S. automotive manufacturing jobs.
The tariff will have a major impact on the market for new cars—in 2024, about 50 percent of the 16 million new cars purchased in the U.S. were manufactured abroad, and cars manufactured domestically often contain a significant number of imported components. Will Scharf, a White House aid, estimated that the tariff would bring in close to $100 billion dollars in revenue.
Trump has suggested that the new tariffs could be implemented before next Wednesday. “We’ll be announcing that fairly soon over the next few days,” he said, “and then April 2 comes, that’ll be reciprocal tariffs.”
April 2 is the day Trump plans to roll out his program of reciprocal tariffs, in which the U.S. will impose additional duties on all countries that penalize the importation of American goods. The exact nature of the reciprocal tariff plan has not yet been released; the president has suggested that “there’ll be flexibility” and said on Tuesday night that the tariffs will be more “lenient than reciprocal.”
April 2 is also the day the White House will also impose a 25 percent tariff on any country that buys Venezuelan oil, a measure the president is taking to pressure a hostile Maduro government that Trump says is sending members of the Tren de Aragua prison gang to the U.S.
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