TARIFFS

The automaker isn’t saying much about the possible tariffs, or about possible retaliatory tariffs that other nations might use against U.S.-made cars.

“While we anticipate that the tariffs will impact Honda’s operations and business partners, we are still in the process of accessing the specific impacts as well as possible strategies to mitigate any adverse effects on our customers, associates, suppliers and dealers,” said Honda spokesman Chris Abbruzzese.

The imported vehicles targeted by the proposed tariffs span just about every maker and vehicle type, from German luxury sedans to frugal South Korean compacts.

Thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canada and Mexico have robust auto industries. Toyota makes the best-selling RAV4 and Corolla in Canada. General Motors makes the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra crew cab pickup trucks in Mexico. Fiat Chrysler puts together a host of products in Canada, including the Charger, Challenger, Pacifica and 300. It also builds the Ram pickup in Mexico. Ford imports the Edge and several Lincoln SUVs from Canada and the Fusion sedan from Mexico.

“I think we are all sitting with bated breath, hoping Sales of cars, such as Honda’s CR-V, imported from Canada, could be hurt by a proposed tariff.

that cooler heads prevail, but most of us believe there’s an equal chance that they won’t,” said Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

NAFTA negotiations have gone on for months — Trump wants to rework the agreement, saying the U.S. gets short shrift — and his administration is playing hardball, with car tariffs as part of its strategy.

Trump’s statements could be merely “chest thumping,” said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting for LMC Automotive. But after the president moved to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on the basis of national security, the threat of new tariffs must be taken seriously.

“The escalation is starting to happen,” Schuster said.

He thinks the tariff would dent sales by 1 million to 2 million vehicles per year, many of those from Mexico and Canada; U.S. sales topped 17 million the past three years.

DesRosiers predicts that lost sales would double or triple those figures.

Honda also makes the Civic and CR-V in Ohio and Indiana, but the models are so popular that the company needs the Canadian production to meet demand. The CR-V is so popular it is even eating into Accord production in Marysville, a trend that Honda might need to accelerate if the tariffs happen.

“It’s not an economically feasible prospect to import vehicles to the U.S. market in a 25 percent tariff situation,” said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry, labor and economics at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“It would be very difficult to sustain a Canadian industry without relatively free access to the U.S. market.”