Report: 5 Things to Know About Automotive Tariffs

July 11, 2018—As President Donald Trump’s administration considers imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported autos and auto parts, Forbes recently analyzed the key factors at play, as they pertain to the industry.

According to Forbes, here are the top elements to consider regarding tariffs that could affect the industry:

1. Passenger vehicle imports are the nation’s leading import, and the biggest category of vehicle parts rank sixth. Vehicle exports are the U.S.’s third-leading export, and parts rank fourth.
2. The above four categories account for about 6.3 percent of all exports in the U.S., and 9.8 percent of all imports … which would equate to nearly $350 billion in trade subjected to tariffs.
3. This year was projected to be the first in which foreign manufacturers made more vehicles in the U.S. than domestic manufacturers.
4. The U.S. imported more than $10 billion in passenger vehicles from five nations in 2017: Canada, Japan, Mexico, Germany and South Korea. The U.S. imported vehicles from 83 nations total in 2017, though nearly 85 percent came from the top five.
5. While U.S. imports of vehicles are growing more rapidly than U.S. exports of vehicles in terms of dollars, the ratio of that trade (in other words, the percentage of exports to imports) is vastly improved from two decades ago, when just 19 cents of every dollar in passenger vehicle trade was an export.