DETROIT (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday repeated false claims that Chinese automakers are setting up large factories in Mexico and vowed during a Michigan state auto manufacturing shutdown to slap 200% tariffs on all vehicles made and shipped to the United States by unbuilt plants.
Trump also claimed at an event in Flint that if Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is elected in November, the U.S. will no longer have an auto industry because the construction of electric vehicles will go to China.
That statement came even as auto industry employment has grown since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, after being dropped during Trump’s first term.
“If I don’t win, you won’t have an auto industry in two or three years,” Trump said, calling the increases under Biden and Harris temporary. “You have no manufacturing plants. China is taking over everything because of the electric car.”
He told the crowd that he would get foreign automakers to build factories in the United States by imposing tariffs on imported cars, saying it “is like taking candy from a baby.”
Foreign automakers already have several factories in the United States, mainly in the southern states.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, auto jobs fell 0.8 percent under Trump to just over 949,000 in January 2021, when he leaves office. Since Biden took office that month, auto and parts jobs rose 13.6% to 1.07 million in August, so there’s no evidence the industry is disappearing. Car sales increased by 2.4% in the first half of this year.
Trump said his tariffs would make Chinese vehicles built in Mexico unsalable in the United States and force automakers from China and elsewhere to set up factories in the United States.
“China owns and builds them in Mexico, and a lot of them are going up right now,” Trump said of the Chinese factories.
While some Chinese automakers want to sell in the U.S., industry analysts say there are no major Chinese-owned auto plants under construction in Mexico, with only one small Chinese auto assembly plant operating there. It’s run by a company called JAC, which builds low-cost vehicles from kits sold in that country.
Trump also promised to levy tariffs on vehicles made in other countries if those countries tax vehicles made in the United States. But tariffs are often passed on to consumers in the country that assesses them.
The Harris campaign released a statement from Michigan Sen. Gary Peters saying a second Trump term would crush auto jobs and “hand Michigan’s global auto manufacturing leadership to the Chinese government.” He said Harris has a plan to bring good-paying manufacturing jobs home “and ensure Michigan workers continue to be world leaders in the automotive industry.”
