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Auto industry cries foul as Trump moves toward car tariffs
By PAUL WISEMAN, CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and TOM KRISHER
AP Business Writers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Having start- ed a trade war with China and enraged U.S. allies with steel tariffs, President Donald Trump is primed for his next fight. He is targeting a product at the heart of the American experience: cars.
Trump’s latest plan is to consider slapping tariffs on imported autos and auto parts — a move he says would aid American workers but that could inflate car prices, make U.S. manufacturers less competitive and draw retaliation from other nations.
The action has also begun to provoke a backlash among member of Congress, who have so far been reluctant to chal- lenge Trump policies that are upending decades of U.S. policies.
Manufacturers, suppliers, car dealers and foreign diplomats will line up to testify at a Washington hearing to try to
head off auto tariffs. After the hearing, the Commerce Department will decide whether to label imported vehicles and auto parts a threat to America’s national security and whether to recommend tariffs to the president.
In announcing the auto investigation in May, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had said, “There is evidence that, for decades, imports from abroad have eroded our domestic auto industry.”
Yet even General Motors, which ostensibly would benefit from a tax on its foreign competition, is opposed to Trump’s plan.
And even considering the administra- tion’s trade war with China over Beijing’s predatory practices in high-tech indus- tries and even after imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Amer- ica’s closest allies, Trump’s auto tariffs raise the ante substantially: The U.S. last year imported $192 billion in vehicles and $143 billion in auto parts — figures
that dwarf the $29 billion in steel and $23 billion in aluminum imports and the $34 billion in Chinese goods the admin- istration has so far hit with tariffs.
“This is really taking it up one gigan- tic notch,” said Mary Lovely, a Syracuse University economist who studies trade. “I do think it may be a bridge too far.”
In the Senate, Democrat Doug Jones
of Alabama and Republican Lamar Alexander of Tennessee have announced plans to introduce legislation opposing Trump’s proposed 25 percent auto tariffs. Both warned that the tariffs threaten tens of thousands of jobs in their states.
“Foreign automobiles and auto parts are not a threat to our national securi- ty,” Jones said. “But you know what is a threat? A 25 percent tax on the price of these imported goods.”
Nor is America’s auto industry itself crying for help against foreign competi- tion. U.S auto sales reached 17.2 million last year — the fourth-best haul on
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