Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called on the White House Tuesday to release a confidential internal report on the potential need for auto and auto parts tariffs.
The Commerce Department delivered the report to the White House Sunday, but the administration has indicated it may keep the details secret for months.
“The president needs to make public his administration’s report on whether it believes imports of autos and auto parts are a threat to our national security, and whether it’s considering tariffs or import restrictions,” Wyden said. “One sure way to encourage Congress to limit Donald Trump’s authority on trade matters is to essentially tax imported cars and trucks under a rationale that is as dubious as the one he is making to build a wall on America’s southern border.”
President Trump has 90 days to review the report before he makes a decision on its recommendations. The White House has kept the report closely under wraps and given no indication that it will unveil it anytime soon. Stakeholders in the auto and manufacturing industries assume the report recommends tariffs, but no one outside of the administration appears to know for certain.
“We had a meeting today and nobody had heard anything about what it is in it,” said Libby Newman, spokeswoman for the American International Automobile Dealers Association. The meeting Newman mentioned involved Driving American Jobs, an ad hoc coalition group of most auto industry and dealership trade associations. Lawmakers and labor groups contacted by the Washington Examiner said they were in the dark as well.
Cause of Action, a nonprofit watchdog group, filed a pair of freedom of Information Act requests for the report Tuesday. “The public has a right to see the Commerce report that purports to justify the Administration’s escalating tariffs, which are nothing more than taxes on American consumers,” said Kevin Schmidt, the nonprofit organization’s director of investigations.
The department’s report involves Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which allows the White House to impose tariffs on the basis of national security. Trump has interpreted that authority broadly to justify imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and has threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on auto and auto parts imports. The report was originally meant to be released last year but the administration held off after it began preliminary talks last year with European Union officials on a potential new trade deal.
Full negotiations with the EU have not been formally scheduled, however, and the lead-up to them has been rocky. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom has repeatedly told reporters that they will not consent to putting agricultural subsidies on the table, a key issue the administration is pursuing.
Business groups have urged the White House to avoid new tariffs. “A tariff will raise the price of cars and motor vehicle parts, strain family budgets and reduce car sales and vehicle repairs,” Driving American Jobs said Sunday. “Decreased sales will mean fewer American jobs with wide-ranging effects across our economy that could prove catastrophic.”
