Michigan Congresswoman says tariffs on Canadian and Mexican products could crash U.S. auto industry

The Trump administration’s 30-day pause before levying tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico granted a kind of temporary reprieve to Michigan’s auto industry and other businesses.

During the recent campaign, President Trump vowed to help automakers by taxing products made outside the U.S. But some Michigan lawmakers question that approach.

Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens previously served as chief of staff for President Obama’s U.S. Auto Rescue Tax Force. She says she worries whether tariffs will produce the effect Trump says they will.

Listen: Congresswoman Haley Stevens warns that Trump tariffs could crash U.S. auto industry

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Haley Stevens: One of the concerns that we have, and it’s a big one, is does this strengthen the Michigan manufacturing and automotive base? There’s a considerable amount of what we broadly call trade. But it’s imports and exports between the supply chain that exists with our auto industry into Mexico and Canada we’re concerned about.

A lot of times in Michigan we see the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. We can see it as we’re driving down the road in downtown Detroit, if you’re down there for work or a concert or a sports game. People are coming over from Canada to work here, a lot of people here married Canadians and a lot of people have Canadian family. So there’s kind of that personal connection that we have.

But then there’s also the reality of the hundreds of billions of dollars that come from exchanging parts and components. And many here live and breathe the auto industry, are employed by the auto industry or working their tails off at plants and innovating and putting things together.

Plus, it’s not like the Ford Motor Company, for example, just exists as a singular entity that puts together the cars. They have to do long term purchase arrangements. They’re working with thousands of suppliers, many who are in Michigan and the industrial Midwest, and then some who are over the border in Canada.

We lived through the time when there were some massive disruptions to our supply chain because of COVID-19 and we paid a price. Remember all those cars sitting on lots because we couldn’t get microchips?

We’ve got unbelievable employment right now in the state of Michigan, it’s not that people are out of jobs or anything along those lines. But one thing that is so necessary in the auto industry is that they need certainty. They cannot just out of the blue change course because of how these production lines work, how the shipments work, and so on. The General Motors and the Fords of the world and our friends over at Stellantis, they’re looking way down the road. It’s the year 2025, but I guarantee you they’re already talking about models they’re going to make in 2030.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: Some experts said they were worried, if these tariffs would go through at some point, about the potential effect on the economy. Whether it would raise the prices of products, even those made in the U.S., that have to have some parts from Canada. Or companies who use workers from there and might have to make job cuts. Do you think those are realistic possibilities, or do you think that’s being overblown?

HS: Well, President Trump put tariffs in place during his first administration, certainly not on Canada and Mexico but on China. We do need to be tough on China and President Biden kept those tariffs. But according to the Cato Institute, we saw inflation even before COVID hit, we saw prices starting to pick up. So the companies do end up passing the costs down to the consumer.

Now there’s some talk that they would collect those tariffs and use that to pay down our debt and deficit. I’m not totally sure how that would operate, but I know that’s being discussed. That could be interesting, in part because America does have a large amount of debt and we want to be a strong and secure country.

I’ve been working here in Congress for over six years and I know the debt issues preceded my time in the U.S. House and I would like to see them tackled. But what I don’t want to see is the Michigan taxpayer pay more for a car. Cars are already really expensive. I want our automakers to be as competitive as possible. I want the good work and talent that runs through our state to be able to compete and kick butt anywhere in the world.

QK: Trump often seems to operate with this type of style. He’ll sound tough at the beginning and then he backs off and will try to reach some type of a deal. Now they have this pause after he first announced the tariffs. Do you think this is proving to be an effective type of style?

HS: Time will tell. It’s certainly really chaotic. I will say I’m getting a lot of messages from analysts and people I respect and trust in the automotive space, either asking for advice or declaring that we could see plant closures. There’s absolutely a lot of chaos and confusion. And there’s questions on another front of the Trump administration, with regard to what Elon Musk is doing.

QK: What kind of advice do you give them when they ask?

HS: There’s a lot of pressure on Democrats right now to stand up and stop things from happening. That’s going to take some creativity and craftiness of approach, as well as a little bit of the long-term from the legislative standpoint. Sometimes we’ve all got to remember, don’t bury your head in the sand. I have to remind myself of this, because I’ll see these headlines come out about stuff I’m working on and they’re so dramatic. They’re just click bait or trigger bait, designed to trigger you. And it’s not healthy to be constantly in a state of panic, because you’re not in control. But we are in control of our destiny, our future, the grand dialogue of democracy. I’m not giving up and neither should anyone who is nervous right now.