President Donald Trump has pushed back tariffs on car imports from Canada and Mexico for a month following pleas from executives at the Big Three automakers — General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis — who hope automakers will relocate any overseas operations to the United States by April 2.
This break, as first mentioned by Politico, comes just under two days after Trump imposed 25% tariffs on all goods from the U.S.’s neighboring countries, previously duty-free under NAFTA 2.0 during his first term. The exception goes to automakers following the USMCA, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Many automakers, like the Big Three, have intricate supply chains and run numerous manufacturing plants in Mexico and Canada. GM, for instance, manufactures its Chevy Equinox in both countries, while Ford’s Lincoln Nautilus SUVs and Stellantis’ Dodge Chargers are made in Ontario. Several automotive suppliers also house factories in those nations.
Auto prices sit at record highs already, and these tariffs could inflate sticker prices by up to $12,000, notes Jeff Schott, a Peterson Institute for International Economics senior fellow, in a Detroit Free Press interview. This could dampen demand, stranding dealers with unsellable cars.
During an address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump encouraged manufacturers to relocate their operations stateside. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated Wednesday in a briefing that Trump expects GM, Ford, and Stellantis to move production to the U.S. ahead of the tariffs starting at month’s end. “He told them to get moving,” Leavitt said. Ford CEO Jim Farley spoke at an investor talk last month, saying the company lacks production capacity at its factories for such a shift. Farley added that Ford could manage short-term tariffs but continued fees “would devastate the U.S. industry unlike ever before.”