Ford CEO calls Trump not ‘choosing Cherry’ tariff because auto industry faces a threat of multi -million dollars
Ford (F) Executive Director Jim Farley sounded Tariff Plans of President Trump – But not the way many expected.
During yesterday’s Ford’s Q4 Earning Call, Farley warned that extended imports to imports coming from Mexico and Canada, where Ford and rival GM (GM) to make vehicles, would have a “devastating impact” in the industry, with potential for billions of profits to be deleted.
But he has singled out other car manufacturers importing cars outside America and do not pay any tariffs, claiming that the current tariff scheme of the target on selected countries is not fair.
“What does not make sense is why we run this conversation while [South Korea’s] Hyundai-Kia imports 600,000 units in the US without the incremental tariff and why is it [Japan’s] Toyota could have introduced half a million vehicles in the United States without engine tariffs? “Farley said.” I mean, there are millions of vehicles that do not apply to them, so if we have a tariff politics … It is better to be comprehensive for our industry. “
Farley added, “We can’t just choose one or the other because this is Bonanza for our imported competitors.”
Read more: What are tariffs and how do they affect you?
While Toyota (Tm) does not pay any incremental tariffs on vehicles imported from Japan and currently pays a small of 2.5%. Low tariffs on Japanese vehicles are interesting given the import wars that occurred in the 1980s, when the tariffs were on Japanese cars In some cases exceeded 60%.
As for Hyundai (Himtf) and the sister company Kia, 67% of their sales in the US were Korean vehicles, and the balance came from US factories and Mexico. The two combined for 1.7 million vehicles of vehicles in the United States last year.
Now they have a a Free Trade Agreement with South Koreawhich means that tariffs like passenger cars are not collected on imported light vehicles.
Farley’s focus on the righteousness with tariffs (and of course, ensuring that his rivals face the same difficulties) may not matter for Trump, given his priorities.
“Trump is not focused on Japan, because he targets the border and the immediate neighbors of his nation,” wrote Japanese Society President Joshua Walker in The Japan Times, as he noted Car news. “Therefore, Japan is in a much better position than many other countries.”
Even if the trade war is followed by Canada and Mexico, Farley believes that Ford is better located than other competitors, because it is the most famous car manufacturer that was the most fascinated (with the highest UAW workforce) and builds its Cash F-series of Gotovina USA.
