GM Says It Can Mitigate Up To Half Of Potential Trump Import Tariffs

GM CEO Mary Barra said at a recent conference that General Motors will be able to mitigate up to 50 percent of the costs of potential tariffs that President Donald Trump has been threatening against Canada and Mexico.

“We are prepared,” Barra said during a Wolfe Research investment conference, according to CNBC. “When we know exactly what’s going to happen and/or even have an indication of what’s going to happen, we know the steps we could take.”

The threatened 25-percent tariffs on all goods coming to the U.S. from Canada and Mexico are on hold at least until March 1st, following negotiations with Prime Minister Trudeau and President Sheinbaum regarding border security. Trump has also proposed 25-percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the States. All of the above would significantly impact the U.S. auto industry if implemented.

GM CFO Paul Jacobson appeared with Barra at the conference and noted that GM is open to shifting production of parts and even vehicles if tariffs are prolonged in order to manage costs.

Previously, GM has indicated that it’s prepared to shift more full-size truck production into the U.S. if necessary. GM builds trucks at Silao Assembly in Mexico and Oshawa Assembly in Canada, but it also makes a lot of trucks in the States that are safe from tariffs.

“We are working across our supply chain, logistics network, and assembly plants so that we are prepared to mitigate near-term impacts,” Mary Barra told investors in January, shortly after Trump returned to the White House. She said that the majority of the planned steps “are no-cost or low-cost.”

While moving more USDM truck production to the U.S. might be mostly painless, it would be more challenging to domesticate production for some of GM’s more affordable models that are made in Mexico. Many of GM’s USDM electric vehicles on the BEV3 platform are built at the Ramos Arizpe facility in Mexico. Meanwhile, the all-new 2025 Chevy Equinox is built at the San Luis Potosí plant.

George is an automotive journalist with soft spots for classic GM muscle cars, Corvettes, and Geo.

George Barta

George is an automotive journalist with soft spots for classic GM muscle cars, Corvettes, and Geo.

View Comments

  • really think ... first of all ... the first General Motors Decree is to change back gm to GM.. Then to change the worldwide CEO for another strategy, maybe review also all GM Designs. If Biden went away why he did not took that woman in helicopter too ? sincere redo the Cadillacsof he 1950ies... invite stylists who know how to draw cars...

      • well since "our" cat has gone some 1,5 year back... with only 12.2 years due artritis high bones opened on all legas and my wife decided him not to suffer firther.. decided to not buy champagne anymore... so most as ever drink limonade, mango juice, avocado juice... coke, sometimes guaraná.... and yeah since 2001 with paranoid because the fight with BMW was high.. it is clear take my meds daily regularly 100 mg and it is ok all those 20 years. about what post is, it is about GM worldwide. hope answering yoir questions according

    • First of all I love the United States of America.Why is guy what's his face trying to make it the Ununited States of America. No heart heartless no brain brainless ,does it know how to make friends Why I think he loves himself. Does he love a genocidic a__hole looks like it. Anyway there is a North America ,South America , Central America and a Caribbean . Someone needs to go back to school , maybe old school where they still give the strap. Has this guy ever done manual labor ?!! Sorry I'm done with this . I Love my United States of America I was born here

  • sincere a woman who think more in buyin a NBA WNBA or whatever team is not ONLY think in cars so .... is it her in the right company yet ? probably have then doubt what she says now

      • then Disney would go bankrupt... which hope not.... george lucas sold star wars to disney, it was greaat... because we had some interesting series like mini yoda mandalorian, it has nice animations bydisney too, we pay € 11.99 monthy to have disney films because open tv is terrible, no please do not send the woman to Disney, she leaves gm and do stock shares in NYSE with her team stadiums and so on.,

  • Wow, build in America, what a novel idea 🙄. Funny, same days as VW is admitting they'll need to sell their plants to China.

    • but VW Wolfsburg here down sells a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot cars and are extreme billlllllllllllllllllllionaires no worry... they will continue with all factories, just ... well my time at VW Brasil was only 1 year in 1998, asked my demission, it was not design anyway, so VW Wolfsburg does not understand VWB to be part of... just the moneyback... anyway.. germans you know hw they are lost two big fights but continue the high pose.... what want to say at m time there had brasil projects, now not all projects are imported done from germany, do not knowthe Tera now, probably not too.

    • Germanys own problem. They were lucky they didn’t need to nearly sell their own country to Russia when they cut off their gas supply during the Ukraine war thanks to Gerhard Schroeder and Angela Merkel making them fully dependent on Putin. I guess Schroeder getting that advisory position at Gazprom was totally worth selling his country for it.

      • you are right, because Schröder and Merkel my 10 years time at Munich, had to be 5 times at unemployment department... because BMW did not wanted me... so no, both those politicians were not good... now with preportent Frederik Merz will gonna be a disaster again, the point is now Ucrania has to give all territory to Putin and Trump to explore mines and in this sense hope "we" deliver less armaments to there, even when now in Görlitz factory they changed Trains production to Tanks

    • Yes, gone are the good old days when Biden would mandate/force everyone to purchase an EV if they needed a vehicle, and GM was in bed with the Democrats ready to supply an overpriced one, thinking that they would benefit Talk about being dictatorial.

      • You are delusional. Nobody mandated/forced anybody to purchase an EV under the old administration. Co President Elon was dominating the EV market at that time and still is. You will notice that the ICE trucks will become even more expensive by the end of the year. Blame it on Biden as well.

  • From Canada here, was in the process of ordering a Cadillac ct4 Blackwing, but will be holding off due to Trump and his tariffs and comments.
    Lots of other choices of vehicles that are not built in USA.

  • "GM Says It Can Mitigate Up To Half Of Potential Trump Import Tariffs Utilizing existing American manufacturing"

    Welcome to the entire point of the tariffs.

  • Don't think that this is going to only affect just the vehicles made in Mexico or Canada - most if not all of the vehicles made here in the US have parts sourced from outside the US. And GM is not going to raise the price of say the Blazer - produced at the Ramos Arizpe plant - $10,000 ($40,00 x 25%) - GM will spread the cost of tariffs across its entire line-up.

  • The automakers will enjoy the reduced taxes and regulations that are coming under the Trump administration, but they still want to continue to move production to low wage countries unabated and take advantage of EV tax credits even for vehicles built outside the United States? Ford and GM are going to have to come to the table with a repatriation plan to bring jobs back to the US and fill their vast idle capacity and I am sure the talk of tariffs will die down.

Recent Posts