With just one tweet, President Donald Trump has rocked the world economy once again. He further shocked the world when he proposed new tariffs on foreign automobile imports, drawing fiery responses from leaders in Canada and Europe. Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has been telegraphing that he would soon be imposing tariffs. Not too long ago, he proposed raising these tariffs to 25 percent. Domestic labor groups have strongly supported the proposed tariffs, which are expected to be released later this summer. Yet global leaders are condemning them, expecting the worst fallout.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) are creating an answer to these proposed tariffs. They view implementation of these measures as a real, tangible win for American workers. UAW President Shawn Fain declared the tariffs are an indication of good things to come. Their primary goal is to restore manufacturing jobs in the United States.
“We applaud the Trump administration for stepping up to end the free trade disaster that has devastated working-class communities for decades.” – UAW President Shawn Fain
The president is right to address the American people’s concerns about free-trade agreements. He criticizes these trade pacts for sending American factory jobs to lower-cost foreign countries. Industry observers cautioned that the tariffs won’t result in new jobs overnight. After all, it’s not an overnight process to establish new manufacturing lines here in the U.S. either. Jobs correspondent Alan Fisher of Al Jazeera America warned about the long-fuse nature of such job regeneration.
“Donald Trump says that this will help regenerate the car-building process in the United States.” – Al Jazeera correspondent Alan Fisher
“But, of course, if anyone is going to build a plant, it is going to take two, three, maybe four years – beyond Trump’s time in office.” – Al Jazeera correspondent Alan Fisher
The automobile industry in the United States is dominated by the “Big Three” manufacturers: Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors. In October, Ford CEO Jim Farley went public with his worries over proposed cross-border tariffs. He cautioned that these tariffs would severely undermine the US auto manufacturing industry over the longer term.
This is why the international reaction to Trump’s tariff proposal has been so predictably negative. In November, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was one of the first to sound alarm over global economic fallout.
“The US has chosen a path at whose end lie only losers, since tariffs and isolation hurt prosperity for everyone.” – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney voiced his opposition, emphasizing the potential breakdown of previously strong economic ties between Canada and the US. Canadian factories get most of their car parts and raw materials from the US, exposing them to these new tariffs.
“The old relationship we had with the United States – based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation – is over.” – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
Carney underscored in his testimony that Canada would respond with their own trade actions. The aim is to reduce the effect at home but increase the impact on the US.
“We will fight the US tariffs with retaliatory trade actions of our own that will have maximum impact in the United States and minimum impacts here in Canada.” – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
As the conflict escalates, heads of state and diplomats around the world are discussing what action to take. Then, Carney raised the specter of Canada having to pivot its trade away from the tap-turned-off United States.
“We will need to dramatically reduce our reliance on the United States. We will need to pivot our trade relationships elsewhere. And we will need to do things previously thought impossible, at speeds we haven’t seen in generations.” – Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
