Pub. 4 Issue 4

A ll new cars sold in the Unit- ed States will cost more — to build and probably to buy — if the Trump administra- tion imposes an auto tariff. That's because every car sold in America is at least partly imported. The Commerce Department is consider- ing tariffs on cars assembled at foreign plants and on foreign-made auto parts. Every car assembled in the United States contains a significant percentage of foreign parts, ac- cording to government data. "There are no purely American vehicles," said Michelle Krebs, senior analyst at Auto- Trader. "These are global automakers who use global sources for all types of parts." Automakers are already warning that tar- iffs would raise their costs, in some cases by thousands of dollars per car. General Motors said last week that it could be forced to cut jobs. US regulators track how "domestic" every car is by measuring the percentage of each vehicle's parts and manufacturing that comes from either the United States or Canada. According to that measure, the two most "American" cars are both Hondas — the Od- yssey minivan and Ridgeline pickup. Three- quarters of each vehicle's components are made in the United States or Canada. The Honda Civic, Acura MDX, Acura TLX and the Mercedes C-class source 70% from the United States and Canada. The BY CHRIS ISIDORE Every US-Made Car is an Import. That’s Bad News for Automakers