Ford CEO: Trump's Tariffs Could Cost US Industry Billions

Ford CEO Jim Farley has warned the White House that long-term tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Mexico and Canada would severely impact the US auto industry. This would cost American manufacturers billions of dollars in profits and have severe consequences for jobs in the USA, Farley said following the presentation of quarterly figures. 

US auto giants like Ford and General Motors have expanded production in neighboring countries in recent years. US President Donald Trump recently imposed additional tariffs of 25 percent on goods from Mexico and Canada - but quickly postponed them initially for 30 days.

Farley argued that rivals like Hyundai, Kia, and Toyota could import millions of vehicles from South Korea and Japan into the US without an additional burden. At the same time, the White House and Congress had promised to strengthen and not weaken the US auto industry, he said on the US channel CNBC.

Continued High Losses with Electric Cars

The quarterly figures show that Ford still cannot stop the high losses in its electric car business. The division posted an operational loss of nearly 1.4 billion dollars (1.35 billion euros). That was at least a good 180 million dollars less than a year earlier. Farley hopes to turn things around with newly developed electric models. They should come onto the market "in a few years".

Thanks to strong sales of vehicles with combustion engines and commercial vehicles, Ford managed a quarterly profit of 1.8 billion dollars. In the previous year's quarter, there was still a loss of around 500 million dollars. Revenue increased by five percent to 48.2 billion dollars.