new York
Cnn
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The imminent prices on imported cars could mean more than higher prices for buyers and lower profits for car manufacturers – this could also mean layoffs for American car workers.
President Donald Trump said his car rates will close the industry, deploying the production of cars and car parts in American factories. But the experts say that it will take years to accomplish, if it happens at all. In the meantime, we will need an impact Production of automotive and automotive parts.
The automatic supply chain is delicate and global. Even if only Mexican and Canadian assembly factories have stopped due to loss of access to the US market, this will affect American suppliers who send parts to these factories. And some cars built in the United States are intended for Canada and Mexico. Anything that could see car manufacturers and parts suppliers cutting production – and less production means fewer American jobs.
“Car manufacturers are in a serious situation,” said Patrick Anderson, president of Anderson Economic Group, a Michigan based reflection group. “They will have to make difficult decisions about the production to continue, which will not make … We expect to implement these prices to affect jobs across the United States.”
Anderson said that in addition to manufacturing job losses, other American -related American jobs will probably be assigned to sectors such as dealers and transport.
The Trump administration insists that prices will be a net positive for American jobs, the president providing for “enormous growth” for the American automotive industry. Car manufacturers will react quickly by transferring production to American factories with relatively few costs, according to Trump and his supporters.
“This will lead to the construction of many factories, in this case, automobile factories,” he said when he was announced last week. “You will see figures as you have not seen … in terms of employment. You are going to have a lot of people who make a lot of cars. ”
The price move was even applauded by Sean Fain, president of United Auto Workers Union and severe critic of Trump.
“With these prices, thousands of automobile jobs with well-paid blue passes could be brought back to workers’ communities across the United States in a few months, simply adding changes or additional lines in a number of underused automobile factories,” said a union statement. “Currently, thousands of car workers are dismissed in Ford, General Motors and Stelllantis following recent decisions of car leaders to send jobs to Mexico.”
Although a certain production can return relatively quickly from Mexico and Canada to American factories producing the same model, this is not the case for most of the 3.6 million vehicles that these countries export here. Many Canadian and Mexican mounting channels build models not manufactured in America, and it will probably take years to build or modernize American factories. In other words, assuming that car manufacturers even decide to do so.
However, some basic car workers are optimistic about employment gains.
“I trust the process,” said Isaiah Goddard, a third-generation self-working at Ford’s Rawsonville Components and Plant Batches in Michigan. “Prepare yourself for Ford and the three big ones to announce more jobs and plants that soon return to America.”
But the other automotive workers who spoke in CNN last week did not also descend Trump’s pricing promises.
“There are some who think it is good that it supports our sales,” said James Snow, who worked for the Division of Stellantis pieces, Mopar, for almost 27 years. “Others like me believe that it will not help much, especially if we consider that the prices will have an impact on the price of the parts.”
John Hatline, who retired earlier this month after 50 years in GM, said that he did not think at all that Trump prices “will be good for the automotive industry.”
“Its prices will increase the prices of vehicles, slowing the purchase of consumers of new vehicles, which will then lead to layoffs and less production time, affecting the payroll checks of car workers,” said Hatline.
The industry remains mom on the future levels.
The car manufacturers and Mema, a commercial group for suppliers, refused to comment on production and employment plans. And there is no firm estimate for the number of jobs that could be lost in the short term.
But the prices are about to upset an industry that has worked in North America as a single market for decades, moving freely through borders to assemble vehicles.
According to S&P Global Mobility, around 61% of the 4 million cars built in Mexico were exported to American dealers. A huge 86% of the 1.3 million built in Canada were sent to the United States. But all of these vehicles were built with a large number of parts made in the United States.
Exports of American car parts to Mexico and Canada reached $ 35.8 billion and $ 28.4 billion, respectively, last year, according to federal trade data.
American parts suppliers employ around 550,000 workers – almost twice as much as automotive assembly factories. Some of them Suppliers could be forced to reduce staff if Canadian and Mexican plants temporarily closed.
And reprisal prices by Canada and Mexico in response to Trump administration prices would increase car buyers’ prices in the north and south of the border. This could also risk American production and jobs. The American assembly factories exported almost 15% of the 10.2 million vehicles manufactured last year, with nearly a million people going to Canada and Mexico.
Cox Automotive predicts that there will be 10% to 20% of cars less produced in North America due to the next car The prices, which take effect on April 3. And if the prices extend to Canadian and Mexican automotive parts, this could mean up to 30% drop.
“We are committed to building and investing in the United States, but these installations and supply chains are massive and complex and cannot be moved or redirected overnight,” said John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, The Automakers’ Industry Trade Group, in a press release.
“Additional prices will increase costs on American consumers, will reduce the total number of vehicles sold in the United States and reduce American automobile exports – all before creating new manufacturing or new jobs in this country”, ”