Global automakers say Trump's tariffs will be painful for them, US consumers

FRANKFURT, Germany, Mar 28 (AP): Whatever the U.S. gains from President Donald Trump's 25% tax on imported cars - and experts are skeptical - automakers around the world are bracing for a lot of pain.
In Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Canada and across Europe, automakers employ millions of people whose livelihoods depend on buyers in the U.S. that currently spend more than $240 billion annually on imported cars and light trucks. The Trump tariffs - aimed at boosting U.S. jobs and tax revenues - will also affect imported auto parts, which were valued last year at $197 billion.
"The impact will be really huge and very disruptive," said Sigrid de Vries, director general of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association. Vries and others critics say American car shoppers will also be worse off, as tariffs push prices higher.
Policymakers around the world said Thursday they were weighing their next moves - namely, whether to retaliate or not, and if so, how. But they also expressed hope that negotiations with Washington could avert an escalating trade war, and the economic damage and global supply chain disruptions that would come with it.
Trump said the U.S. would begin collecting tariffs on autos on April 3. The impending hit comes on top of other U.S. tariffs planned globally on steel and aluminum, and at a time when competition from China, and the transition to electric vehicles, is already pressuring automakers.
The anticipated blow knocked down the stock prices of many major automakers on Thursday, including Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Kia and BMW.
U.S. carmakers are less exposed to possible retaliation because they export only 2% of their production to the EU. Still, shares of Ford and General Motors fell because the U.S. industry relies heavily on cross-border trade in auto parts - although Tesla is an exception and its stock price rose on Thursday.
Most foreign carmakers have plants in the U.S. -- Japanese carmakers have two dozen, for example. But that would not shield them if they use imported parts, unless those parts are exempted under a free-trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. The auto tariffs will be felt sharply in Europe, for whom the U.S. is the biggest export market for an industry that supports nearly 14 million jobs.
The EU's top trade official, Maros Sefcovic, has traveled to Washington at least twice since Trump was reelected to try to engage the administration. But Trump says the tariffs, which his administration estimates would raise $100 billion in revenue annually, are "permanent."