Canada slaps matching 25% tariff on U.S.-made vehicles in latest response to Trump’s trade war | CBC

Tariffs risk integrated auto sector that took ‘decades to build’

I’m in downtown Detroit, in the heart of the Motor City. The auto industry is vital to Michigan’s economy, with an estimated one in five jobs connected to it.

I just interviewed Glenn Stevens Jr., head of MichAuto, a group that represents a range of stakeholders in the sector. He said everyone is still assessing Trump’s tariff plan, and he’s concerned about disruptions to the North American supply chain.

“I can look right across the border here, across the river, and see Canada. We don’t look at that as another country, with regards to automotive. We look at it as a trade partner, ally and friend,” he told me in a boardroom at MichAuto’s offices, which have a view of the Detroit River and Windsor, Ont., on the other side of it.

“Our economies in Michigan and Ontario are absolutely interconnected, and it took years, decades to build that. We’re concerned about the unravelling of that,” he said.

His group is urging the White House to kick-start a renegotiation of the trade deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, sooner rather than later, in an effort to find a resolution to the tariff war now underway.

Trump wants U.S. auto companies to build everything on American soil, but Stevens said that would take years. I asked whether the companies intend to do as Trump wishes, and he said that’s unknown at this time.

“I think the mood is the same it’s been for a couple of months now,” he said. “A lot of uncertainty.”