Trump's Trials - Trump gives automakers a tariff break

Episode Date: March 6, 2025

President Trump says U.S. automakers will get a one-month break on steep tariffs for Canadian and Mexican goods. Support NPR and hear every episode sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

I'm Scott Detro and you're listening to Trump's terms from NPR. We're going to be doing all sorts of things nobody ever thought was even possible. It's going to be a very aggressive first hundred days of the new Congress. An unpredictable, transformative next four years. The United States is going to take off like a rocket ship. Each episode we bring you NPR's coverage of President Trump acting on his own terms. And that means sometimes doing things that no American president has tried before. NPR is covering it all in stories

like the one you are about to hear right after this. Hey, it's Amartines. I work on a news show. And yeah, the news can feel like a lot on any given day, but you just can't ignore las noticias when important world-changing events are happening. So that is where the Up First podcast comes in. Every single morning in under 15 minutes, But you just can't ignore las noticias when important world-changing events are happening. That is where the Up First podcast comes in.

Every single morning in under 15 minutes, we take the news and boil it down to three essential stories so you can keep up without feeling stressed out. Listen to the Up First podcast from NPR. Ari Shapiro, President Trump has decided to give U.S. automakers a break on those steep tariffs on imports of goods from Canada and Mexico that went into effect this week, but only until April 2nd. It's the latest in a series of whiplash moves on tariffs. NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liason has been keeping track of the

back and forth, and she's at the White House. Hi, Mara. Hi there. It was only yesterday that these 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico took effect, and today things have changed. What happened? There's a carve out now. The big three automakers, GM, Ford, and Stellantis, who've been hit hard because their supply

chains are so integrated between the three countries, US, Mexico, and Canada, to make a car, the parts travel back and forth over the borders many times. So they appealed for a break and they got one along with all the other U.S. car companies. And here's how White House press secretary Caroline Levitt explained it. We spoke with the big three auto dealers. We are going to give a one month exemption on any autos coming through USMCA. Reciprocal tariffs will still go into effect on April 2nd. But at the request of the companies associated

with USMCA, the president is giving them an exemption for one month so they are not at an economic disadvantage. So USMCA is the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement. That's a free trade deal that Donald Trump himself negotiated in his first term to replace NAFTA. So up until now, there have been no tariffs on any products between the US, Mexico and Canada. And now the US car companies are going to get a reprieve from Trump's new tariffs until April.

The month isn't a long time. What happens after the month is up? So April 2nd is the date that Trump says he will put in place what he calls reciprocal tariffs. We don't quite know what they'll be. We don't know what their tariff rates will be or the products, but they'll on on products coming from all over the world The general idea is that the US will retaliate against countries that have tariffs on US goods Trump describes this as they tariff us We'll tariff them as if he wants to create a level playing field. Although the tariffs on Canada and Mexico were not about that They were about fentanyl and immigration. But at that point, April 2nd, we assumed there would be tariffs on foreign car imports

from all over the world. Here's how Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Fox News today described what happened. What they said was, look, we're domestic American automakers, and if you put a 25% tariff on us, and you don't put it on the Germans, and you don't put it on the Koreans, and you don't put it on the Germans and you don't put it on the Koreans and you don't put it on the Japanese, you're helping everybody

but us. So come on, can you help us? And it turns out the president could help them and he did at least temporarily. So those tariffs on Canada and Mexico were put in place using emergency powers to try to curb illegal immigration and stop the flow of fentanyl. So Trump can put these tariffs on and hand out exemptions from them to corporations that lobby him because this is a power that the president has under the emergency powers. Tariffs are his go-to economic tool.

They're very well suited to his kind of broad unchecked view of the powers of the executive branch. He doesn't need court approval or congressional approval. This is something he can do by himself. What's the overall goal of these tariffs? Well, that's a good question. There have been so many goals that Trump has talked about, it's hard to parse them all.

As I said, for Canada and Mexico, it was to stop illegal immigration and fentanyl. At other points, he says it's about jobs. Here's Lutnick again from that Fox News interview channeling the president. Why are our Michigan jobs in Canada? Why are our Michigan jobs in Canada? And that's what the president's going to address.

He's going to say, come on back, come on back. We're going to build Michigan. We're going to build Ohio. So the answer is the reason why they're in Canada is because it's hard to go back to being a completely self-sufficient economy that doesn't rely on trade with your neighbors after they've spent years transforming their businesses and becoming completely integrated into a free trade bloc.

That's NPR's Marlaes and thank you. Thank you. Before we wrap up, a reminder, you can find more coverage of the incoming Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsored messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org.

I'm Scott Detro. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.