According to a report by the Detroit News on March 17, 2024 (Local time), Donald Trump said he would impose a 100% tariff on automobiles made in Mexico by Chinese automakers, double the levy he has previously said he would impose on automobiles made south of the U.S. border.
Earlier this month, Trump threatened a 50% tariff on Chinese automobiles. He has also proposed tariffs of as much as 60% on all Chinese goods and 10% on worldwide goods. He said he’s not worried about retaliatory measures from China or other countries.
Trump addressed Chinese President Xi Jinping directly during a rally speech in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday when threatening tariffs. “Those big monster automobile manufacturing plants you are building in Mexico right now, and you think you are going to get that—not hire Americans, and you’re going to sell the automobile to us, no,” Trump said. We will put a 100% tariff on all automobiles across the lot.”
Trump continued by saying it would be a “bloodbath” if he didn’t win this year’s U.S. presidential election.
As president, Trump focused heavily on the idea that the U.S. was being ripped off by bad trade deals and cheating, embarking in 2018 on a trade war with China that saw round after round of escalation as the two countries enacted tariffs on each other’s products.
Trump’s most significant trade actions included the trade war with China, the broad implementation of tariffs, the replacement of the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and the exit from the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement negotiated under President Barack Obama.
However, international trade and automotive industry experts at the time said the Trump administration’s signature trade policies did little to bring back U.S. manufacturing jobs and achieve his goal of balancing the trade deficit. Indeed, the U.S. trade deficit was higher in 2020, at $678.7 billion, than it was when Trump took office—$502.3 billion. It rose further during the Biden presidency, ending 2023 at $773.4 billion.
However, the trade deficit with China dropped from $347 billion when Trump took office to $308 billion in 2020. Though it rose again in the first years of the Biden administration, it fell to $280 billion at the end of 2023.
According to federal data, Michigan’s manufacturing employment stood at 617,100 when Trump took office in January 2017. It peaked at 634,200 in December 2018, but by December 2020, manufacturing jobs declined to 580,000 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In January 2024, it rebounded to 609,000.
Trump’s proposed 100% tariff levied on the price of Chinese automakers’ automobiles assembled in Mexico escalates threats the former president made on February 27 during Michigan’s presidential primary, which he easily won.
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