The stock of GM tumbled 9 percent in trading on November 26th, joining the other Big Three stocks including Ford and Stellantis in a nosedive precipitated by President-elect Donald Trump‘s announcement of a 25-percent tariff on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada into the United States.
The sharp downturn contrasts with The General’s stock market gains for much of November, with its share prices rising 9 percent in the first full week and three percent each in the second and third weeks of the month.
Trump says the tariff is meant to exert pressure on the two neighboring countries over their failures in preventing the flow of narcotics and illegal immigrants into the United States, declaring “I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25 percent Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States and its ridiculous Open Borders.”
The vast majority – three quarters or more – of Canadian and Mexican exports flow into the U.S. Meanwhile, 12 percent of Canadian imports to America are in the automotive sector, while car-related imports from Mexico are more than double that at over 25 percent of the total.
GM Ramos Arizpe Plant, Mexico
GM has multiple production facilities in Canada and Mexico where many of The General’s U.S.-marketed models roll off foreign assembly lines. About a million of the vehicles that the automaker sold in the United States during 2024 originated north or south of the border, with the tariffs applying to any vehicles imported in 2025 and beyond if Trump issues the promised executive order.
Some analysts kept a cooler head than Wall Street, expecting the size of the tariffs to be a bargaining chip giving Trump leverage in securing concessions from Mexico and Canada in the early days of his second presidential term. Dan Levy of Barclays noted that the bank’s analysts consider the 25 percent as “largely negotiation tactics (as seen in 2016), and see such magnitude of tariffs unlikely.”
GM Oshawa Assembly, Canada
On the flipside, Luke Junk, an analyst at major investment firm Baird & Co., remarked that Trump’s move may be “driving a near-term selloff in the stocks and making it difficult to invest in the space near-term.”
