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OTTAWA \u2014 Canadian auto industry leaders say the latest tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump will raise the prices of cars for consumers and devastate the sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is nuts,\u201d said Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturing Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems he\u2019s bent on doing the things that he\u2019s been warned will shut down the American auto sector,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if (Trump) insists on tariffs on Canada and Mexico, his reward will be risking the employment of a million American autoworkers. He either doesn\u2019t understand how intertwined we are or doesn\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump announced 25 per cent tariffs on all automobile imports effective April 2, which will begin being collected on April 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the Detroit Three automakers have to move their parts divisions back to the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shares of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis all slid in after-hours trading.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Canadian and American auto sectors are heavily intertwined \u2014 automotive parts can cross international borders up to eight times before a vehicle is finally assembled, said Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candice Laing. Tariffs could add thousands of dollars to the cost of that vehicle, she said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consequences of today\u2019s escalation in this destructive tariff war will not be contained to Canada, as much as the U.S. administration would like to pretend,\u201d said Laing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThrowing away tens of thousands of jobs on both sides of the border will mean giving up North America\u2019s auto leadership role, instead encouraging companies to build and hire anywhere else but here,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis tax hike puts plants and workers at risk for generations, if not forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s largest private-sector labour union agreed, saying it would have a direct impact on Canadian jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we saw (Wednesday) are unjustified and unwarranted and potentially illegal tariffs that have been applied on the auto industry in Canada,\u201d said Lana Payne, national president of Unifor \u2014 which was formed from a merger including the former Canadian Auto Workers union in 2013. She noted auto workers have been an important part of the Canadian economy for more than a century.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not Donald Trump\u2019s jobs to steal. They are not Donald Trump\u2019s jobs to take,\u201d she told reporters at a press conference in Kitchener, Ont.<\/p>\n
Asked how soon layoffs might begin after the tariffs are implemented, Payne said she needed to understand the full details of the tariffs before she could say.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to realize it\u2019s compounding tariffs on the auto industry. We use steel and aluminum to build cars. There\u2019s a tariff on that. There\u2019s a tariff that will be on finished vehicles, from what we understand, and the parts, the Canadian parts that are in that vehicle will be tariffed. So what will this mean? \u2026 I don\u2019t know yet, but what I can tell you is that none of this is good for Canadian jobs and Canadian workers right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s executive order doesn\u2019t appear to exclude vehicles built under the terms of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade. He also stated that these tariffs are \u201cpermanent.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
David Adams, president and CEO of Global Automakers of Canada, said Trump\u2019s tariff policies fly in the face of promises he\u2019s made about affordability.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur perspective has always been that these tariffs really are taxes on the American consumer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The uncertainty caused by the steady stream of announcements, exemptions, delays and threats is also weighing on the economy, added Adams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing that businesses hate is uncertainty,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The tariffs will lead to widespread shutdowns in the U.S. and Canada, Volpe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump doesn\u2019t care about the wake he leaves in U.S. industry, and I think Canadians and other allies should disavow themselves of the idea that we can plead a case for our industries,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Volpe believes Trump won\u2019t understand the damage he\u2019s doing until it\u2019s already done.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe may have to break it before he sees that it\u2019s not working.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The steel and aluminum tariffs already implemented are hits on the sector that can at least be absorbed in the short term, said Volpe, but that\u2019s not the case with tariffs on the auto sector as a whole.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a92025 The Canadian Press<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n