Who Stands to Lose Most From Threatened Auto Tariffs
Workers install the control panel on a Honda Fit vehicle on the production line after the opening ceremony for Honda Motor Co.'s plant in Celaya, Mexico.
Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg
Governments, corporate executives and consumers will all be watching a meeting this week between President Donald Trump and the head of the European Union’s executive arm, Jean-Claude Juncker, who hopes to forestall a major escalation in the global trade war. The U.S. is deciding whether to impose tariffs as high as 25 percent on car imports as part of Trump’s bid to reduce the $566 billion U.S. trade deficit. The proposal has drawn opposition not just from Japan, Mexico, Canada and Germany, among others, but from U.S. automakers as well.
In ways small -- higher prices facing car buyers -- and big: If the U.S. follows through on all its tariff threats, world economic output would be 0.5 percent less in two years, according to the International Monetary Fund.