US automakers rip Trump trade deal with UK
America's "big three" automakers ripped President Trump on Friday over his newly announced trade deal with the United Kingdom.
The Thursday agreement is the first bilateral trade pact the administration reached since it rolled out and then paused a "reciprocal" tariff regime on many of America's main trading partners.
The British auto industry expressed excitement about the deal, which allows the U.K. to export 100,000 cars to the U.S. at a 10-percent tariff rate, and effectively removes another national security tariff.
American carmakers didn't share that enthusiasm.
“The U.S. automotive industry is highly integrated with Canada and Mexico; the same is not true for the U.S. and UK,” American Automotive Policy Council President Matt Blunt said in a statement.
“We are disappointed that the administration prioritized the UK ahead of our North American partners,” Blunt added.
The council represents Ford, General Motors (GM) and Stellantis. Each of the three companies have factories in the United States but still forecast major setbacks due to the president’s tariffs, given the auto industry's highly integrated supply chains across North America.
Last week, GM said levies could scrape as much as $5 billion from its profits this year, while Ford expects to take a $1.5 billion hit, The Associated Press reported.
As a result of hikes on imported goods, Stellantis in April halted production at plants based in Canada and Mexico, which are both subject to taxes on foreign vehicles.
Blunt said the U.K. deal undercut the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Trump's first-term trade deal that replaced the divisive North America Free Trade Agreement.
“Under this deal, it will now be cheaper to import a UK vehicle with very little U.S. content than a USMCA compliant vehicle from Mexico or Canada that is half American parts. This hurts American automakers, suppliers, and auto workers,” Blunt said Friday.
“We hope this preferential access for UK vehicles over North American ones does not set a precedent for future negotiations with Asian and European competitors.”
Mike Hawes, chief executive of British industry group SMMT, called the trade pact "great news" in a statement Thursday.
He described the tariffs as “a severe and immediate threat to UK automotive exporters” and said the Thursday deal would provide “much-needed relief.”
The deal also creates a new “trading union” for steel and aluminum components, which will remove some U.S. tariffs on the metals.
The Hill contacted the White House seeking comment on Blunt's criticism.