Bet he's getting a bit nervous....all of the sudden stepping back on some tarriffs only because once again he knows he won't win the tarrif war so what does he do....exemptions...yes exemptions!!! Not even 48 hrs in and he's offering exemptions. .. You can't make this stuff up President Donald Trump gave a one-month tariff exemption to automakers after he spoke with the heads of General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis. Trump is open to additional tariff exemptions after pausing duties on automakers, a White House spokesperson said. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/05/tru...ht-any-type-of-war-us-wants-till-the-end.html
Exemptions in such cases are common, but they do create ill will. A small importer can well ask, "just because I'm not GM I have to pay X%?"
And you go to a little room with a brown paper envelope to apply for your exemption. The last term there was a room in the White House for this.
I just left a discussion with my team here, discussing what if our resellers in the US do this or that when they do the math with +25% to their customers for our product. This went on for some time. Then it struck me how much money, productivity loss, Trump is causing N. American business in total, because everyone is having these discussions just like me. And we don't even know what's final, if anything, yet!
Do what Honda is doing, build a plant in the USA. Tariffs cancel the advantage of cheap foreign labor. Tariffs will reduce trade with commie countries.