South Korean media: The three major American automakers strongly oppose the reduction of Japanese car tariffs!
On July 25, the South Korean media "Seoul Economic Daily" published an article stating that with the end of US-Japan negotiations, the tariff on Japanese cars was significantly reduced from 25% to 15%, and the US automotive industry reacted strongly, calling it a "bad deal."
The chairman of the American Automotive Policy Council (AAPC), Matt Blunt, criticized: "This agreement imposes a lower tariff on Japanese imported cars that contain almost no American parts than on cars made in North America, which is a bad deal for the American industry and auto workers." AAPC is an interest group representing the positions of the three major American automakers - General Motors, Ford Motor, and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler.
Recently, the United States has lowered the reciprocal tariff on Japan from 25% to 15%. On the other hand, the North American automotive industry has had to pay high tariffs on imported parts. Since April, the United States has imposed a 25% tariff on imported vehicles, and since May, a 25% tariff on imported vehicle parts. In addition, the United States has decided to impose a 25% tariff on cars imported from Canada and Mexico. However, President Donald Trump decided in April this year to temporarily reduce the tariff on imported parts for companies producing cars in the United States, for a period of two years.
This is not the first time that AAPC has opposed Trump's reciprocal tariffs. In May this year, AAPC also opposed the trade agreement between Trump and the UK, saying it would "harm the American automotive industry." At that time, the Trump administration agreed to impose a 10% tariff on up to 100,000 British cars exported to the United States. This amounted to the total amount of British cars exported to the United States last year.
The impact of tariffs on the automotive industry is becoming evident. General Motors announced its second-quarter financial report, stating that it had lost $1.1 billion due to tariffs, and the impact in the third quarter would be even more severe. Previously, Stellantis predicted that tariffs had already cost it $352 million, and the impact in the second half of the year would be greater.
According to data from the consulting company GlobalData, about half (46.6%) of new car sales in the United States come from imports. Imported cars mainly come from Mexico (16.2%), South Korea (8.6%), Japan (8.2%), and Canada (7.2%). Even if a car is produced in the United States, thousands of its parts need to be purchased from overseas countries such as Mexico, Canada, South Korea, and China, so tariffs will inevitably have a significant impact.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1838595884563528/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.