New York
CNN
—
President Donald Trump is set to announce at 4 pm ET Wednesday tariffs on cars shipped to the United States, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Trump previously said he would announce auto tariffs on April 2, the day he’s expected to announce a package of reciprocal tariffs. However, earlier this week, he hinted at an earlier rollout for the auto sector.
Leavitt did not immediately share any details on the tariffs, including the rate and date they will go into effect, saying Trump will deliver that information later in the day.
This comes after the Big Three US automakers, Stellantis, Ford and General Motors, successfully lobbied for exemptions to 25% tariffs on all goods coming to the US from Canada and Mexico that were set to go into effect earlier this month.
The exemption Trump announced allowed for autos to come in duty-free if they were compliant with the terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) free trade agreement. Trump later applied that to all goods coming from the two countries. However, that’s set to expire on April 2, when Trump could announce higher tariff rates for the two countries and many others as part of his “Liberation Day.”
“I gave the American car companies a break because it would have been unfair if I didn’t,” Trump said last week.
The move caught the auto industry by surprise once again. An executive at one of the automakers, who spoke on background to CNN Wednesday, said they had been working with the assumption that none of the auto tariffs would take effect for another week.
“We were all kind of expecting April 2 to be our day,” said the auto executive. “But if the Trump administration has shown us anything, I mean, things are unexpected.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
