The White House will delay for up to six months a decision on whether it will impose tariffs on cars and auto parts. The Trump administration put the decision on hold following meetings with auto industry groups over the last week, according to multiple reports.
President Trump has long threatened to slap 25% tariffs on autos and auto parts. A Commerce Department report delivered to the White House in February, but not made public, was widely assumed to give the administration a rationale to impose tariffs under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which allows tariffs to protect national security.
A White House spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
Trump has said that the decision on whether to initiate the tariffs would hinge on the outcome of trade negotiations with the European Union, a major auto exporter. “We are negotiating with them. If we do not make a deal, we’ll do the tariffs,” Trump told reporters in February, shortly after the Commerce Department delivered its report.
Those talks have yet to get seriously underway, having been stalled for months over the issue of whether the EU’s agricultural subsidies and other protectionist farm policies will be up for negotiation. U.S. lawmakers have demanded they be included, but EU officials have said that’s a non-starter. The U.S. has also started preliminary trade talks with Japan, another major auto exporter.
A decision on the Commerce Department report on the tariffs had originally been due by May 18, 90 days following its release, but the White House has the option under the law to extend that for another 180 days.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing the major foreign and domestic manufacturers, issued a statement Wednesday that did not directly comment on the news reports but said they remained “deeply concerned that the administration continues to consider imposing auto tariffs.” The group called it “essentially a massive tax on consumers.”
