Trump keeps tariffs drumbeat going, with automobiles targeted next

The Star

US President Donald Trump has kept alive his drumbeat of tariff threats, saying that levies on automobiles would be coming as soon as April 2.  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yc89zf84  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00Mr. President, you mentioned auto tariffs the other day, when do you plan to honor them?

00:05Howard, I'd say over the next sometime, maybe around April 2nd.

00:10I would have done them on April 1st, believe it or not.

00:14I'm a little superstitious.

00:15No, literally, we had it planned for April 1st, I said, let's make it April 2nd.

00:20You know how much money that costs?

00:21That costs a lot of money just that one day, but we're going to do it on April 2nd, I think.

00:26Is that right?

00:27That's right.

00:28President Donald Trump kept alive his drumbeat of tariff threats, saying that duties on automobiles

00:33would possibly be coming on April 2nd.

00:36Trump said this to the media on Friday, in response to a question about when the U.S.

00:41will slap tariffs on imported vehicles.

00:44Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley applauded the idea to look at vehicle imports into the

00:49U.S., saying that comprehensive trade policies are imperative to achieving the President's

00:54vision to strengthen the U.S. auto industry.

00:58Since his inauguration last month, Trump has imposed a 10 percent tariff on imports

01:02from China, and announced and then delayed for a month 25 percent tariffs on goods from

01:08Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada.

01:12Trump also announced 25 percent tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum starting from

01:17March 12th.

01:18Analysts said the 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports will not significantly

01:24boost U.S. steel production, but will instead create uncertainties for businesses in the

01:29country.

01:30What we have seen so far is that a lot of business people, including some business people

01:35that are big supporters of President Trump, have complained that somehow the uncertainty

01:41of these tariffs is impacting their ability to plan for the future.

01:45Remember that a business has to plan several years into the future, and so if you have

01:49tariffs going on and off every week or every month, that's very difficult to make plans.

01:55I remember in the 1940s, the United States was responsible for 50 percent of all the

02:01steel production in the world.

02:03Now it's less than 5 percent.

02:05So the numbers have come down dramatically.

02:09And then, of course, you have to ask the question, if we impose these tariffs, are we going to

02:13see more steel plants being created?

02:17I think we're not going to see more steel plants.

02:20In fact, even our steel plants today are operating at less than 75 percent capacity.

02:25Maybe that will go up a little bit, but these tariffs are not going to lead to significantly

02:31more steel production, in my judgment.

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