WASHINGTON, Mar 27 (AFP): US President Donald Trump has announced steep tariffs on auto imports and parts, provoking threats of retaliation from trading partners ahead of further promised trade levies next week.
Wall Street slumped ahead of Trump's Wednesday afternoon announcement, while the world's top-selling automaker Toyota plunged more than three per cent.
Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Tokyo was "considering all kinds of countermeasures", while Canada's Mark Carney branded Trump's tariffs a "direct attack" on his country's workers.
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also said his country "cannot stand still" in response to the levies.
"What we're going to be doing is a 25 per cent tariff on all cars that are not made in the United States," Trump said, as he signed the order in the Oval Office.
The duties take effect at 12:01 am on April 3 and impact foreign-made cars and light trucks. Key automobile parts will also be hit within the month.
Trump responded by threatening Canada and the European Union with "large scale tariffs, far larger than currently planned" if they work together to cause "economic harm" to the United States.
Peter Navarro, Trump's senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, in a briefing after Trump's announcement blasted "foreign trade cheaters" who he said turned America's manufacturing sector into a "lower wage assembly operation for foreign parts."
He took aim at Germany and Japan for reserving the construction of higher-value parts to their countries.
But Washington's levies appeared to raise eyebrows close to home, including from Trump ally and Tesla boss Elon Musk, who said the cost impact on his firm's cars was "not trivial".
"To be clear, this will affect the price of parts in Tesla cars that come from other countries. The cost impact is not trivial," he posted on X.
The association of American Automakers said in a statement on Wednesday that Trump's tariffs must be implemented in a way that "avoids raising prices for consumers" and preserves the industry's competitiveness.
Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has imposed fresh tariffs on imports from major US trading partners Canada, Mexico and China-alongside a 25 per cent duty on steel and aluminum.
The latest levies will be in addition to those already in place for products.
But the White House added that vehicles entering under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) can qualify for a lower rate depending on their American content.
