Yesterday in a lecture at the Economic Club of ChicagoTrump reiterated his intention violated the North American Free Trade Agreement (USMCA) negotiated by his own government by imposing new tariffs on cars manufactured in Mexico. In a long, rambling story, Trump described his experience with an auto plant manufacturer in Mexico that claimed the candidate’s plans for tariffs had already caused companies to abandon plans to build new plants in the country. I sincerely apologize for how long and convoluted this anecdote is, but the guy simply speaks like this:
Mexico is a huge challenge for us at the moment, huge. China is building huge car factories in Mexico. And they will build them, and they will take these cars and sell them to the United States – they are very close to the border – and they will have all the advantages and no disadvantages. And that will be the end of Michigan, it will be the end of South Carolina, frankly, the end of everything.
So I talked about it and I said it [a “friend” of Trump who “builds auto plants”] About nine months ago I said, “You know what? I want you to do me a favor, John” – his name is John, I don’t want to say his last name because he might not like it – but I said, “I want to see a car factory, that’s what I want.” Look Look at one of these – you know, you press a button and everything works, right? I want to see one of the greats.”
He said, “All right, fine.”
I said, “Where are we going?” I’d like to go to Michigan, I’d like to go somewhere in the United States.”
He said, “No, we can’t.”
“Why?”
“We don’t build anything big in the United States, it’s not like that – we don’t build the big ones here.”
I said, “Where do you build the biggest ones?”
He said, “In Mexico. We are building huge plants, the largest plants anywhere in the world, in Mexico.”
I said, “So you mean they’re going to make cars cheaply? They have advantages in labor and other things, and they will sell them to the United States and put Michigan out of business. Is that it?”
“I don’t know anything about that, I just build the systems. If you want to see a plant, we’ll go to Mexico, I’ll show you the biggest plant in the world.”
That was nine months ago, I saw it – and I’ve been talking about it the whole time because I think it’s a serious threat to our country, not just cars but other things – and then I got it Saw it two days ago, I was talking in another club. Very nice club, and all – except, I don’t know, I think you’re probably even wealthier, okay. That was in Detroit, which was appropriate, and I talked about it – I showed them all kinds of diagrams about how their car worked – you know, it just broke down, it’s terrible.
And I saw him and said, “Oh, how are you, how have you been?” I said, “Can I ask you, how are the plants that you mentioned, these huge plants that you have in Mexico build? “How’s it going?” Have you finished it?”
“No sir, they gave up the project when they heard you were running. They abandoned the project when they saw you were winning and doing well.”
Because I told them, and I said it publicly, that they will not sell a single car to the United States. I said, when I run this country, when I become president of this country, I will impose a tariff of 100, 200, 2,000 percent – they will not sell a single car to the United States.
It’s unclear whether Trump meant a tariff on all vehicles made in Mexico or just those from factories built by “China” (presumably Chinese automakers), but his previous wish was for the same tariffs on Ford, GM, Stellantis and John Applying Deere would indicate this over the former.
It’s also unclear whether the candidate plans to do so, given how automobile production in Canada appears to have flown under the candidate’s radar everyone whether a car sold in the US should be built here or whether this move is more aimed at angering Mexico specifically. One of these goals is probably impossible, but the other seems all too easy for Trump – a man already vulnerable to triggering trade wars over automobiles.