U.S. President Donald Trump holds paperwork he signed during an Ambassador Meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on March 25, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee | Getty Images
President Donald Trump could impose new tariffs on auto imports as soon as Wednesday, a White House official told CNBC.
But the timing on Trump’s latest tariff announcement is not set in stone, according to the official, who said that the new duties could come later in the week.
Trump on Monday had hinted that the auto tariffs could arrive prior to April 2, the day his sweeping “reciprocal tariff” plan is set to begin.
“We’ll be announcing that fairly soon over the next few days, probably, and then April 2 comes, that’ll be reciprocal tariffs,” he said at a Cabinet meeting.
A truck carrying vehicles prepares to cross into the US from Canada at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario, on March 8, 2025.
Geoff Robins | Afp | Getty Images
Bloomberg first reported the forthcoming auto tariffs.
Trump has long signaled his plans to impose heavy tariffs on foreign trading partners. But his unpredictable and frequently shifting policy rollouts have stirred turmoil in the stock market and left business leaders uncertain about how to plan for the future.
Trump has hyped April 2 as “liberation day” and “the big one.” His plan, as originally described, would slap reciprocal tariffs on all countries that have their own import duties on U.S. goods, while also imposing tariffs in response to other disfavored trade policies, such as the use of value-added taxes.
But Trump and his officials have recently suggested that the tariffs coming April 2 could end up being softer than they first appeared.
Trump said Friday that “there’ll be flexibility” on those tariffs, and on Tuesday night suggested the duties will be more “lenient than reciprocal.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that countries can pre-negotiate with the U.S. to avoid facing new tariffs on April 2.
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