CEO Jim Farley warns there’s a ‘global street fight’ among international automakers, and Trump is bringing ‘costs and chaos’. The CEO of the Ford Motor Company has warned that President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to “blow a hole” in the U.S. auto manufacturing industry. Jim Farley spoke out this week about the 25 percent across-the-board trade tariffs looming for Mexican and Canadian imports to the U.S., including for steel and aluminum, and warned that it could trigger major job losses in Trump-voting states.
Canada is the biggest source of U.S. imported steel, which is key to the American auto industry, and the tariffs importers like Ford will have to pay will significantly hurt American consumer prices and competition with foreign vehicles. “Frankly, it gives free rein to South Korean, Japanese and European companies that are bringing 1.5 million to 2 million vehicles into the U.S. that wouldn’t be subject to those Mexican and Canadian tariffs. It would be one of the biggest windfalls for those companies ever,” he emphasized.
Farley warned that there’s an ongoing "global street fight" in the auto industry with the transition to electric vehicles and the rapid growth of Chinese automakers across various markets, indicating now is not the time for disruption. "President Trump has talked a lot about making our U.S. auto industry stronger, bringing more production here, more innovation to the U.S. and if his administration can achieve that ... it would be one of the most signature accomplishments," Farley said. But so far, he warned, the signs are troubling.
“We’ve already sunk capital ... into battery production and assembly plants all through Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee,” Farley said. “Many of those jobs would be at risk if big parts of the IRA are repealed.”. The CEO said that for all of Trump’s talk about making the American auto industry stronger, “so far what we’re seeing is a lot of costs and a lot of chaos.”. Other experts have echoed Farley’s warning, and not that tariffs on materials coming from outside the U.S. will increase pressure on sourcing them domestically.
.png?auto=webp&width=800)
