Trump says he will tax Mexican auto imports by 200% and make them 'unsellable' in the US

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Former President Trump Tuesday said he would implement a 200% tariff on all Chinese auto imports from Mexico, which he said would make them "unsellable" in the U.S.

"Tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented," Trump said at a town hall event in Flint, Mich., hosted by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. "I took in $467 billion from China. Nobody else took in anything."

Former President Trump at a town hall event at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.

Trump predicated his comments about implementing a 200% tax on Mexican auto imports with a story about one of his friends in the auto manufacturing industry. Trump said he asked that friend to show him a contemporary, top-of-the-line automaking plant located in the U.S. But, according to Trump, his friend told him that was not possible, because the U.S. only has smaller auto manufacturing plants, while the major ones are located in Mexico and are mostly run by China. 

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"They think they're going to make their cars [in Mexico] and they're going to sell them across our line and we're going to take them and we're not going to charge them tax," Trump said Tuesday evening. "We're going to charge them – I'm telling you right now – I'm putting a 200% tariff on, which means they are unsellable in the United States."

A Toyota Hilux hydrogen fuel cell prototype vehicle at the IAA Transportation fair in Hanover, Germany, on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024.

Trump quipped after the declaration: "You wonder why I get shot." 

He noted that "when I say something like [taxing Chinese auto imports]" it puts a target on his back, adding "only consequential presidents get shot at."

But, Trump conceded, "You have to do what you have to do." 

"We have to be brave otherwise we're not going to have a country left," the former president added.

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Mexico is the largest export market for U.S. automotive parts, and the fourth-largest producer of automotive parts worldwide, according to the International Trade Administration. Meanwhile, multiple Latin American business news outlets reported this year that Mexico's share of the U.S. auto parts imports market increased from 38% in 2017 to 42.5% in 2023.

Kenneth Rapoza works for the Coalition For A Prosperous America, a nonprofit representing exclusively domestic producers across many sectors in the U.S. He pointed out in July that since June 2022, a combined 29 Chinese auto parts manufacturers and carmakers, such as Chery and MG Motors, announced a total of $7.06 billion in investments in Mexico. Rapoza said that of the $14.2 billion in total Chinese corporate investment in Mexico, between 2022 and 2023, nearly half came from companies that make cars and car parts.      

Earlier this week, Brian Pannebecker, a retired autoworker who has spent a combined 36 years on the manufacturing floors at Ford, Chrysler and Stellantis, spoke to Fox News Digital about why he and other pro-Trump autoworkers are backing the former president over Kamala Harris. He said that besides the former president's pushback on Democratic efforts to implement electric vehicle mandates and other green regulations in the auto industry, Trump's replacement of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the stricter trade rules under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) was also a factor. 

Brian Pannebecker, founder of Auto Workers for Trump 2024, speaks beside former President Trump during a "Get Out The Vote" rally in Waterford Township, Michigan, on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024.

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"Kamala Harris is on record saying she would like to see all vehicles built in the United States reaching zero-emissions by 2035. She supported legislation to that effect when she was a U.S. senator," Pannebecker said. "She knows nothing about manufacturing. She knows nothing about the economy. She's a San Francisco liberal district attorney. And then she was California's attorney general. And we all know what's happened in California. They've ruined that state."

Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, told Fox News Digital that "under dealmaker President Trump" it wasn't just autoworkers, but also farmers and other manufacturers, who "got the best trade deals in history."  

"President Trump successfully imposed tariffs and negotiated new trade deals that leveled the playing field for American agriculture and manufacturing – allowing U.S. industries to send more made-in-America goods across the world," she said. 

Meanwhile, Kelly slammed Harris for opposing Trump's USMCA deal and for failing to open foreign markets for American manufacturers and farmers – which she argued allowed America's trade deficit in goods to reach over $1 trillion annually.