Trump threatens 200% tariff on vehicles imported from Mexico, by Reuters

By James Oliphant and David Shepardson

(Reuters) – U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Sunday he would impose tariffs of up to 200 percent on vehicles imported from Mexico as he ramps up his protectionist trade rhetoric ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

Trump, who faces Democrat Kamala Harris in a close race, has previously vowed if re-elected president to impose a 100 percent tariff on imported cars and trucks to help the domestic auto industry. But while speaking at a rally at an airport in Juneau, Wis., Trump doubled the figure.

“We will put a 200 percent tariff if we have to,” Trump said. “We’re not going to let it happen. We’re not going to let those cars into the United States.”

The former president swept into Wisconsin for the fourth time in eight days, underscoring the importance his campaign places on the state with less than a month to go until Election Day.

Polls have shown Harris, the US vice president, with a slight lead in Wisconsin after the state voted for President Joe Biden over Trump four years ago.

Both Harris and Trump spent an enormous amount of time, money and resources in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which are considered keys to victory in the US electoral college. Trump swept states in 2016 against Democrat Hillary Clinton on his way to becoming president. Biden did the same in 2020.

Harris campaigned with former Republican U.S. Congresswoman Liz Cheney on Thursday in Wisconsin.

Trump’s rally in Juneau came less than 24 hours after he held a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of an assassination attempt against him in July.

Trump made his remarks about the tariffs as he pledged to support the US auto industry. Experts said his plans could increase vehicle prices.

Mexico exported about 3 million vehicles to the United States in 2023, with the Detroit Three automakers accounting for about half of those exports.

The Tax Policy Center said a massive new tariff on Mexican vehicle exports “could increase the cost of motor vehicles, both domestic and imported, used and new.”

Trump has previously threatened high tariffs on Mexican cars as president and as a candidate in 2016. Tariffs of up to 25 percent on Mexican cars and components could severely impact the industry and raise vehicle costs , the automakers said in 2019.

Trump spent much of the first part of his nearly two-hour speech in Juneau attacking the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, which devastated parts of the Southeast and left 227 people dead and hundreds of thousands without power .

Harris left people “stuck,” Trump said, without providing evidence.

“This is the worst response to a storm, a catastrophe or a hurricane that I’ve ever seen,” Trump told the crowd in Juneau.

Earlier Sunday, Deanne Criswell, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, on ABC’s “This Week” program, defended the administration’s actions, saying the agency has enough resources to help recovery efforts.

“We continue to move critical commodities into places that have been hard to reach,” Criswell said.

Criswell called claims by Trump and other Republicans that FEMA funding is being diverted to immigrants in the country “absolutely ridiculous and just plain false.”