Trump plans to delay auto tariffs for six months: industry sources

Not mentioned in the article, but Honda, Toyota, and Nissan all already have massive manufacturing operations in the United States, in part for precisely this kind of scenario. They should be relatively well protected from any tariff threats. Smaller manufacturers such as Subaru or Mazda will be much more exposed- this is one of the reasons Mazda is working with Toyota on a new factory in Alabama.

Also the fact that this is being debated and delayed proves that this is not a legitimate national security issue. If it was really an emergency, the tariffs would be implemented without delay. But Trump needs a flimsy pretense to enact his policies, and going through Congress would be just too much work, so this is what we get.

Trump has threatened to impose 25 percent punitive duties on autos -- a possibility that has worried the European Union and Japan in particular, as well as Mexico and Canada.

Good. They all know now, along with China, that business as usual ( bad trade deals for the U.S. ) is over.

tump will soon change his mind and hit Japanese autos with a 25 percent tariff. Then ask again for Japan to drop agricultural tariffs without offering to drop the auto tariff.

@Derrick Smith

I can see Mexico and China

Mexico, Canada, and Korea are exempt from this tariff threats.

China doesn't export any automobile to the US, save for GM's Buick SUV. Geely used to export Volvo S60 sedans to the US but stopped doing it.

Only the Japanese and European automobiles are exposed to this 25% tariff threats.

American cars here do cost way more than they do in the States too.

Even european cars, in short almost every imported stuff. On the contrary a japanese camera in some cases is cheaper in the U.S than here in Japan.

There is massive investment in Nagoya based around Toyota. Nagoya GDP for 2.2 million people in 2015 = 12,355,900 million yen. In the Nagoya area, one of the three major economic areas in Japan, manufacturing industries such as automobile, aircraft, and machine tools are located. Its scale is the largest in Japan. Toyota for instance: https://www.toyota-industries.com/investors/items/2017_annual_financial_report_E.pdf.

Cost of new 中央新幹線 Chūō Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya is ¥5.63 trillion.

If Toyota has to pay +25% tariffs...things look a bit dire.

There is no reason that the US and Japan should have any tariffs from either end. I can see Mexico and China for sure as they have been exploiting the shipping and tariff system for a while now. There is no reason that American cars should have any problems in Japan either. It's already bad enough we can't import the older cars that we want to import without them being destroyed by politicians that do nothing to help. Mexico has too much of an advantage and they get away with driving truckloads of parts and vehicles here without really anyone saying anything about how it affects our local manufacturing. It's outsource everything because people other than Americans need jobs more than we do. It has been like that since NAFTA was created and no American corporate types were held responsible for selling everyone out and destroying Americans jobs for a profit that goes to people investing that did not earn any of it. Employees should not have to be subservient to investors. Companies shouldn't be laying off people to make false profits or expecting there to be end over end profit at the cost of people's lives. Contrary to the article there were alot of American companies that were exempted from the the tarrifs and the steel companies were still making a hefty profit on metal they had already produced. There was a meeting of hundreds manufacturers and the larger companies were all making profits and had no complaints. The only people being showcased were the small shops that did not plan for the future.

That would finish the Japanese economy.

Does this mean that a Japanese Car would potentially cost 25% more?

If so that is tremendous pressure to sign a trade deal. American cars here do cost way more than they do in the States too.