Trump auto tariffs strike at heart of North American trade [Video]

US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported cars strike at the heart of a North American free trade agreement, threatening to disrupt supply chains and raise prices, experts say.

Thanks to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that came into effect in 2020 — and its predecessor NAFTA — the region became an assembly line spanning the three countries.

“We’ve been making this supply chain more sophisticated for 30 years,” said Juan Francisco Torres Landa, a partner at business consulting firm Hogan Lovells in Mexico.

“There is regional integration based on inputs, raw materials, and processes in all three countries,” he told AFP.

Trump said the tariffs were in response to America’s trade partners “taking our jobs, taking our wealth,” but the duties promise to be a headache due to the deep integration of production chains.

Here are some of the expected impacts of the tariffs, according to experts.

– Snarled supply chains –

During the assembly …