Detroit City Wire

American Automotive Policy Council (AAPC) President and former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt is warning that, unless vehicles and parts meeting U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) standards are exempted, the Trump administration’s proposed 25% auto tariffs could undercut years of domestic investment and strain American auto jobs.

The AAPC, which represents the “Big Three” U.S. auto manufacturers—Ford, General Motors and Stellantis—has urged exemptions for USMCA-compliant vehicles and parts. 

“We certainly share President Trump's goal to have more auto assembly in the United States, and ensuring we have access to parts—some of which are not always made in the United States—is important for us to achieve that objective,” Blunt told Detroit City Wire. 

A recent study from the Center for Automotive Research backs up AAPC’s concerns, estimating that the proposed tariffs could cost U.S. automakers $144 billion in 2025 alone. 

Ford, GM and Stellantis would absorb $42 billion of that total, with nearly $5,000 in added cost per U.S.-produced vehicle and more than $8,600 per imported vehicle. Much of that burden stems from imported components, which remain essential to U.S. vehicle production. The AAPC has also warned that steel and aluminum tariffs—especially those extended to Canada and Mexico—would raise costs. 

Blunt emphasized the importance of treating USMCA-compliant vehicles differently from other imports, arguing that their high level of U.S. content makes them vital to the domestic economy.

“This is one of the reasons that we continue to make the case that vehicles that meet the requirements of USMCA should be exempt from tariffs,” he said. “Whereas the millions of vehicles imported to the United States from Asia have almost no U.S. content, vehicles from Mexico and Canada have a great deal. In fact, Canadian vehicles typically have more than 50% U.S. content, and in recent years, Mexican imported vehicles have had as much as 40%. Not all imports are created equal.”

Blunt pointed to the USMCA’s uniquely strict rules of origin, which require 75% of a vehicle’s content to be produced in North America, 70% of steel and aluminum to be sourced regionally, and 45% of labor to come from facilities paying at least $16 per hour. 

“The USMCA rule of origin is far more stringent than any other trade agreement in the world,” he said. “Frankly, there is no close second.”

Blunt said that complying with these rules has already required massive investments from American automakers. 

“Our members have invested tens of billions of dollars in the United States,” he said. “We've invested far more in the United States than we have any of our other North American trading partners.” 

As the administration continues to weigh further tariff measures, Blunt said American automakers will remain focused on their shared goal with the White House: building more vehicles in the United States. 

“We're hopeful we can maintain an ongoing dialog with the administration over the next four years as we move together on these very common objectives,” he said.  

The AAPC has previously voiced support for Trump’s focus on addressing global trade imbalances, including both tariff and non-tariff barriers, emphasizing the importance of an integrated supply chain to the competitiveness of Ford, GM and Stellantis, and the hundreds of thousands they employ.

Despite the Trump administration’s goal to boost domestic production, Blunt warned that sudden and sweeping tariff changes could destabilize supply chains and delay key investment decisions. 

“Most of the cost is actually associated with the cost of imported parts,” Blunt said. “So we’re very much in favor of ensuring that no parts end up being unnecessarily tariffed, because that will only inhibit the production of vehicles here in the United States.” 

He continued, "Those sorts of transitions cannot occur overnight. It can literally take years to get a plant up and running, producing a new model. Certainly, there will be some opportunities—there’ll be some short-term opportunities—to shift production to the United States, but long term, it will be a long-term process as we seek to move more production to America."

Regarding pickup truck production specifically, Blunt noted that expanding capacity in the U.S. would also require time.

“More pickup production to the United States is something that would take time,” he said. “And our companies make very long-term investment decisions as they plan out a new model—the production of a new model, for example. That can be a four- or five-year process. So it's certainly not something that's easy to move quickly.”

The average U.S. autoworker on a manufacturing line earns about $28 per hour, with top-tier UAW workers making around $33. 

According to the Anderson Economic Group, union workers could see $1,000 to $5,000 less in profit-sharing payouts.

Blunt addressed labor concerns, noting that the high compensation levels of unionized auto workers heighten the financial strain from tariffs. 

"Certainly the UAW (United Auto Workers) employees that assemble vehicles and operate our facilities all around the country need the companies to be healthy and profitable,” he said. “And clearly, these billions of additional dollars in tariff costs are a constraint.”

Looking ahead, Blunt urged the Trump administration to maintain an open dialogue with the auto industry and to push aggressively for global trade access. 

"We really could use their help in opening markets around the world that use technical barriers to trade and the regulatory hurdles to make it difficult for us to ship our products to some of those markets,” he said. “And I think one thing we're encouraged by is that the Trump administration, from the top down, seems to get it—that countries are sometimes able to use automotive standards as a barrier to entry of U.S. exports. So we need them to be aggressive in encouraging other markets to do the right thing and accept products that are built to U.S. standards and U.S. certification specifications."