Automakers building cars in Canada and Mexico are feeling the heat from new US trade rules. The pressure isn’t just political; it’s also financial.
Fresh data suggests that many of those vehicles contain less US-made material than required to qualify for available tariff breaks, and it’s landing them with huge bills.
Passenger cars imported from Canada and Mexico were hit with an average tariff rate of 19 percent in July, according to figures from the US International Trade Commission. That hints that automakers are struggling to prove that enough of their cars are actually made with American parts. It could be that there isn’t sufficient US content in the cars to achieve greater tariff reductions.