A global trade war looks likely to escalate after President Donald Trump announced his administration’s plans to impose a 25% tariff on all imported cars.
According to ABC News, Trump made the comments Wednesday after his previous tariff announcements caused concern of the U.S. economy dipping into a recession.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the auto tariffs will be implemented after “friends and foe” have taken from the U.S.
“What we’re going to be doing is a 25% tariff on all cars that are not made in the United States,” Trump said. “If they’re made in the United States, there’s absolutely no tariff. We started off with a 2.5% base which is what we were at, and we go to 25% and basically as you know and as you’ve been seeing, not as accurately as it should be reported because it’s a massive story. Business is coming back to the United States so that they don’t have to pay tariffs.”
Trump noted that other burgeoning markets will be setting up in the U.S., including AI and auto makers are in the process of building plants.
He continued: “I think also because of November 5th, the election. They’re very happy. AI is coming back to levels nobody’s ever seen before, it’s sort of a new business, I guess when you think about it. But plants are going up all over the United States and many of them have already been started. We’re getting early electricity taken care of, we’re getting permits very quickly for them, and we’re gonna make their life very happy.”
The president pointed out the permitting process will be eased for businesses to get running and online quickly.
“They’re coming in with tens of billions of dollars. Individual plants will cost 10, 15, even 20 billion dollars,” Trump said. “We’re gonna let them build electricity generating plants, along with their plant, and they can’t even believe it, and we’re gonna get them very quick permits as I’ve done always, I did that in Louisiana with two LNG plants. I got them one permit in one day after waiting 14 years, and the other one in one week after waiting for 12 years.”
Trump noted the growth will continue and automakers have now begun the process of closing plants in other countries due to the tariffs.
“But this is very exciting for me, this is the automobile industry, and this will continue to spur growth like you haven’t seen,” he said. “Before I was elected, we were losing all of our plants, they were being built in Mexico and Canada and all those places. Now those plants largely have stopped and they’re moving them to our country.”
