Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau scoffed Thursday at the White House’s announcement that it was looking into auto import tariffs on national security grounds.
Trudeau’s criticism follows the U.S. and Canada hitting an impasse in the ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement renegotiations.
“I am — even more than I was with [previous U.S.] steel and aluminum [tariffs] — trying to figure out where a possible national security connection is. Taking that a step further into autos seems to me to be on even flimsier logical grounds,” Trudeau told Reuters.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced Wednesday evening that the U.S. was starting an investigation into whether imports of cars, sport utility vehicles, vans, light trucks, and automotive parts violate national security under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. Trade experts say the move is being made to pressure Mexico in the NAFTA negotiations.
“There is evidence suggesting that, for decades, imports from abroad have eroded our domestic auto industry. The Department of Commerce will conduct a thorough, fair, and transparent investigation into whether such imports are weakening our internal economy and may impair the national security,” Ross said. The investigation will be a several-month process during which public comments will be solicited.
Ross noted that over the past two decades imports grew from 32 percent of cars sold in the United States to 48 percent. Over the same period, employment in the domestic auto industry fell by 22 percent, even though total auto sales climbed. The auto parts supply chain has largely moved out of the country, with U.S. manufacturers accounting for 7 percent of the industry.
The administration used section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act to justify its recent imposition of tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports.
