The Largest Casualty Of Trump’s Import Taxes Is Volkswagen

Donald Trump has announced that he wants ‘reciprocal import duties.’. In practice, this probably means the EU levies 10 percent on American cars, so the US will soon do the same in return. At the moment, it is only 2.5 percent. Bloomberg has calculated how many cars are sold in the US that were not built there and concludes that Volkswagen in particular is likely to take a big hit as a result. No less than 80 percent of the cars sold by the Volkswagen Group in the US were not built there.

Hyundai and Kia mainly rely on imports for their U.S. sales, with 65 percent of their cars coming from abroad. Mercedes-Benz follows closely with 63 percent. Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi (primarily Nissan) has 53 percent, BMW 52 percent, and Toyota 51 percent. General Motors is next at 46 percent, while Stellantis has 45 percent. Among the ‘Big Three,’ Ford does best, with only 21 percent of its sales coming from imports.

Of course, this doesn’t tell the whole story, because a lot depends on where exactly the cars are built. After all, that also determines how high the additional levy will be. It is also questionable whether Trump will aim for reciprocal import duties for all countries. For example, General Motors is in serious trouble if the import duties for cars from Mexico become as high as Trump predicts: 25 percent. The majority of GM’s cars not built in the US come from there.

• Also See: The Management Of Volkswagen Gives Its Staff Plans For The Future