Donald Trump pledges to impose sweeping tariffs on imported cars

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Donald Trump has elevated his threat to impose sweeping tariffs on imported cars including from Mexico and the EU, placing increased US trade protectionism at the heart of his agenda if he wins a new White House term.

Speaking at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday, Trump lashed out at European car manufacturers, including Mercedes-Benz, and vowed to slap high levies on imported vehicles, arguing that it was the only way to force production to return to the US.

“We’re going to put tariffs on them . . . and you know what they can do? Mercedes-Benz will start building in the United States,” Trump said, while mocking the company’s existing presence in America.

“They build everything in Germany, then they assemble it here. They get away with murder,” the former president said. “They take it out of a box, we could have our child do it,” Trump added.

In response to the comment, the United Auto Workers union, tweeted: “Trump is a scab.”

The Republican presidential candidate’s ire was also directed at car imports from Mexico. “If I’m going to be president of this country, I’m going to put a 100, 200, 2,000 per cent tariff [on cars from Mexico],” he said. “They’re not going to sell one car into the United States,” Trump added.

During his time in the White House between 2017 and 2021, Trump launched trade wars with China as well as G7 allies, and renegotiated a trade pact with Canada and Mexico.

But the former president has expanded the scope and scale of his trade pledges during this year’s election campaign, promising to apply up to 20 per cent tariffs on all imported goods, 60 per cent levies on all Chinese imports, and other tariffs on countries that are moving away from using the dollar.

“To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff,” Trump said.

Economists have warned that his tariff plans — in addition to other elements of his economic agenda, such as sweeping tax cuts and efforts to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve — risk triggering a new inflationary spiral in America and increasing costs for ordinary consumers.

Trump said that if he won the election he would not seek to “order” the central bank what to do in terms of monetary policy, but said the president should be allowed to speak about interest rates.

He also mocked the role of the Fed chair, which is held by Jay Powell, who the former president appointed to lead the central bank early in his administration but has since criticised.

“I think it’s the greatest job in government. You show up to the office once a month, and you say let’s see, flip a coin, and everybody talks about you like you’re a God,” Trump said.

During his session in Chicago, which was moderated by Bloomberg News, Trump was asked if he was in favour of breaking up Google, the technology company, as the Department of Justice is considering.

He responded that Google had “a lot of power” but his main complaint was that it didn’t show enough positive stories about him. “I called the head of Google the other day and I said: ‘I’m getting a lot of good stories lately, but you don’t find them,’” Trump said. “I think Google is rigged,” he added.

But he was sceptical of a big break-up that would “destroy the company”. “What you can do it without breaking it up is make sure that it’s more fair,” Trump said.