In a White House fact sheet published on 26 March 2025, it was confirmed that US president Donald Trump has signed a proclamation invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose a 25% tariff on imports of ‘automobiles and certain automobile parts’.
According to the fact sheet, this action was taken to ‘protect America’s automobile industry, which is vital to national security’. It claimed that this industry ‘has been undermined by excessive imports threatening America’s domestic industrial base and supply chains’.
The tariff, set at 25%, is to be applied to imported passenger vehicles – sedans, SUVs, crossovers, minivans and cargo vans – as well as light trucks.
Furthermore, some automobile parts, such as engines, transmissions, powertrain parts and electrical components, will also be subject to the tariff, with the fact sheet suggesting that the tariff could be expanded to apply to additional parts ‘if necessary’.
In response to this announcement, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, released a statement, which read: “I deeply regret the US decision to impose tariffs on European automotive exports. The automotive industry is a driver of innovation, competitiveness, and high-quality jobs, through deeply integrated supply chains on both sides of the Atlantic.
“As I have said before, tariffs are taxes – bad for businesses, worse for consumers equally in the US and the European Union. We will now assess this announcement, together with other measures the US is envisaging in the next days.
“The EU will continue to seek negotiated solutions, while safeguarding its economic interests. As a major trading power and a strong community of 27 member states, we will jointly protect our workers, businesses and consumers across our European Union.”
Meanwhile, the recently sworn-in prime minister of Canada, Mark Carney, described Trump’s latest tariff as “a direct attack” on Canadian workers. “This will hurt us,” Carney remarked, “but through this period, by being together, we will emerge stronger.”
In a post on social media platform Truth Social – owned by Trump Media & Technology Group – president Trump wrote on 27 March: “If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!”
This comes after US tariffs came into effect on imported steel and aluminium earlier this month, to which both the EU and Canada responded with reciprocal tariffs.
As is stands, the UK automotive industry would also be impacted by the 25% tariff on car imports to the US. UK chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves said during an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’re in intense negotiations at the moment with our US counterparts”.
When asked if British automotive manufacturers such as Rolls-Royce and Jaguar Land Rover could avoid these tariffs, she responded: “We’ve got a few more days left of those negotiations before these tariffs are due to come in. The US are, I believe rightly, concerned about countries that run persistent, large trade surpluses with them – the UK is not one of those countries.”
She went on to say: “We don’t want to get into a trade war […] We are working intensely with the US to try to come to an agreement ahead of these tariff increases next week.”
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