United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he plans to impose tariffs of around 25% on automobile, semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports.
Trump said he would “probably” announce the specifics of the tariff on April 2, but that “it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25%.” His cabinet is set to deliver reports outlining possible import duty options on April 1.
Trump made the latest tariff announcement from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Tuesday.
Trump has previously indicated that tariffs on automobile exports respond to an “unfair” treatment of U.S. automotive exports in foreign markets.
The U.S. imposes a 25% tariff on pickup trucks imported from countries other than Mexico and Canada, which are not subject to tariffs under the United States-Canada-Mexico (USMCA) trade agreement. However, Mexico and Canada together account for approximately half of the United States’ automobile, auto body and parts imports.
In the past month, Trump has announced tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports beginning on March 1 and broad reciprocal tariffs on countries that impose duties on U.S. products. He also said he would press European Union officials to import more cars and other products from the U.S.
EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic will meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Wednesday to discuss the potential tariffs.
For pharmaceuticals and semiconductor chips, “the [tax] rate will be 25% or even higher and will increase substantially throughout the year,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Tuesday.
The president has not yet set a date for introducing tariffs on chips and drugs and said that the delay in introducing the tariffs was aimed at giving companies time to establish semiconductor and pharmaceutical operations in the U.S. to avoid tariffs.
He said he expects some of the world’s biggest companies to announce new investments in the U.S. in the next couple of weeks.
Impact on Mexico
Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard will meet with his American counterparts in Washington on Thursday to discuss the planned tariffs.
“It is a very important dialogue because with this begins not only the dialogue on tariffs that have been announced but mainly to agree on what route we are going to take given the integration that exists between Mexico and the United States,” Ebrard said in an interview with Radio Fórmula.
Since the 2018 signing of the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, Mexico has emerged as the United States’ largest trade partner, holding a 15.5% share of the U.S. import market.
The United States is currently Mexico’s biggest export market for both pharmaceuticals and automobiles. In 2023, 64% of Mexico’s semiconductor exports were destined for the U.S.
With reports from Reuters, El Economista, Al Jazeera and The Guardian
