Auto tariffs to start at 25%, president says
By: Francesca Chambers
USA Today
WASHINGTON - president Donald Trump says he's planning to enact auto tariffs in the "neighborhood of 25%" to encourage companies to shift production form overseas.
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Trump said that while a full announcement would come April 2, [2025] the import duties would likely start at 25%. He said he would charge the same amount for pharmaceuticals and semiconductors and gradually increase the tariffs over time.
..... "it will be 25% and higher, and it will go very substantially higher over a course of a year," Trump said during a news conference at he Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. "But we want to five them time to come in because, as you know, when they come into the United States, and they have their plant or factory here, there is no tariff, so we want to give them a little bit of a chance."
.... Tariffs have become Trump;s top negotiation tool in his new term, with the president threatening to impose them on many countries and specific industries to protect U.S. supply chains and-jump-start job creation in the U.S. the tariffs have been criticized by experts as the equivalent of a tax paid by American consumers on imported goods; Trump;s team has argued they will not lead to increased inflation.
..... The administration is looking to start rolling out so-called reciprocal tariffs on countries that tax imports from the U.S.
on April 2. [2025] Steel and aluminum tariffs are set to take effect on March 12. [2025] Tariffs imposed on Mexico and Canada will go into effect in early March [2025] if the countries do not receive an extension on a temporary pause.