Trump to impose 25% US tariffs on heavy truck imports from Nov 1
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The heavy-duty truck levies were postponed by a month as officials heard appeals from companies concerned about the impact.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said on Oct 6 that a steep US tariff on imported heavy trucks would begin on Nov 1, postponing the date that he initially threatened to impose such duties.
The proposal has been subject to an intense lobbying campaign by Detroit’s legacy automakers.
Mr Trump originally said in September that heavy-duty truck levies would start on Oct 1, but that timeline slipped as officials heard appeals from companies concerned about the impact.
“Beginning Nov 1, 2025, all medium and heavy-duty trucks coming into the United States from other countries will be tariffed at the rate of 25%,” Mr Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social site.
Mr Trump’s announcement is tied to a probe launched in April by the US Commerce Department into heavy truck imports.
That investigation, conducted under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, allows for the imposition of import taxes on goods deemed critical to national security.
The probe focused on medium- and heavy-duty trucks weighing more than 4.5 tonnes as well as parts, stating that a “small number” of foreign suppliers made up the bulk of US imports due to “predatory trade practices”.
Analysts, however, have noted that the impact of tariffs on heavy trucks depends on whether there are exemptions for such vehicles made in Mexico and Canada.
“The US sources 78 per cent of heavy truck imports from Mexico and 15 per cent from Canada,” said Capital Economics economists Neil Shearing and Stephen Brown.
“A key question is whether there will be exemptions for USMCA-compliant products,” they added in a note in September, referring to the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement.
This is unclear for now, they said, flagging that product-specific tariffs – with the exemption of motor vehicle parts – do not necessarily contain exemptions for goods entering the US under the North American trade pact.
“If there’s no USMCA exemption, then Mexico will be most heavily affected by the large truck tariffs,” they said.
Mr Trump’s sector-specific national security tariffs are seen as being on firmer legal ground than some of his other levies, which rely on emergency economic powers to target entire economies.
The latter tariffs have been challenged in court, with the Supreme Court set to hear arguments in the case in November. AFP, BLOOMBERG
