A flood of presidential trade policy announcements has kept US automakers on edge since Donald Trump returned to the White House last month.
While some signature threats –- like 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada — have been wielded and then paused, Trump’s multipronged assault on the international trade order is building up incremental cost pressures, according to auto industry experts.
An additional 10 percent tariff on imports from China — a major auto parts supplier — has already been imposed, and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports that takes effect March 12 is likely to add another layer to supply and manufacturing costs.
“It’s like, a little here, a little there,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said this week. “They won’t be small together.”
And there has been no letup in the stream of trade directives emanating from the Oval Office.
On Thursday, when Trump signed …