A long -awaited rate of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, stimulated on Wednesday confusion and concern in the Automotive capital of Canada.
The president, in a long direction of Rosas Garden in the White House, provided some relief to Canada by leaving him out of a list of nations that face new reciprocal rates of the United States.
But the Trump administration maintains previously announced tariffs that affect Canada, including levies of up to 25 percent of the vehicles gathered and some automotive pieces.
“I am stunned and disgusted at the same time, because we are talking about the livelihoods of people in the line,” said John D’Avol, president of Local Unifor 200.
The almost 2,000 members of D’Agnolo build the V8 engines of Ford, which are sent to the US to be put into trucks and Mustangs.
The White House has said that the engines are among the “key pieces of the car” subject to a rate of 25 percent from this week. However, the parties that comply with the Mexican Agreement of Canada-Mexico (CUSMA) are free of rates, until the administration “establishes a process to apply tariffs to its non-American content.”
D’Agnolo said that many of the parties that enter the engines are of American manufacture, but others come from Canada, China and other countries.
“That’s why it’s so confusing,” said D’A agnolo.
D’A agnolo said that if a 25 percent tariff applies to the engines that build their workers, it would cost the company $ 75,000 additional for each cargo of towing engines that it sends through the border.
“That will substantially increase the price of these vehicles, and then no one will buy them,” he said. “It will destroy a company that is one of the most American companies, point.”
D’Agnolo and industry experts have warned that due to deeply integrated automotive supply chains in North America, tariffs could damage workers on both sides of the border.
The pieces can cross the border half a dozen times before the final assembly, which means that any tariff of the United States, as well as Canadian or Mexican counter-tarifa, would significantly increase costs, both for manufacturers and consumers.
Look: Carney says that Canada will fight against Trump’s latest rates
Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking from Parliament Hill on Wednesday, says that Canada will act with “purpose and strength” to fight the new US tariffs. President Donald Trump slapped new rates of 25 percent to foreign manufacturing cars, but Canada was saved from 10 percent reference rates applied to many other countries.
Windsor-Essex is home to more than 52,000 manufacturing workers, according to the Windsor-Essex Employment Labor Force, thousands of whom work in the automotive industry.
Many of them build Pacificans in the Windsor in Stellantis assembly plant. These vehicles are scheduled to be affected by Trump’s rates, but how much will depend on how many of the thousands of parts in the vehicle are not made in the United States.
The White House He said Companies that import vehicles under Cusma “will have the opportunity to certify their content and US systems will be implemented so that the 25 percent tariff will only apply to the value of its non -American content.”
Even so, workers are already feeling the impact.
Only a few hours after Trump’s announcement, local unifor 444, which represents employees at the plant, announced That Stellantis will stop production for two weeks from April 7, “with more changes in the expected schedule in the coming weeks.”
“While we had listened to rumors about the potential inactivity time, the company said there are multiple factors at stake, with the main driver behind the final decision being the announcement of this afternoon of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, of the American tariffs,” said the union.
Early in the day, the mayor of Windsor, Drew Dilkens, said he was still “trying to decode everything that has been released”, but that Trump’s announcement seemed “much better than any of us had planned.”
However, Dilkens said he understood the anxiety of the windsorites around the rates.
“I have been in pins and needles for this community for most of the two months, so I can understand exactly how people feel, and we have been shaking all cages and surpassing each drum that we can to try to make sure that the president of the United States of the United States is a rate on Canada is a tax for US consumers,” he said.
“It appears today that there is an understanding of that, so I am pleasantly surprised what I have heard the president say … but for my fellow Windsoritas, we are all together in this.”
D’A agnolo said he will tell its members to avoid unnecessary expense at this time.
“I have talked about the time of recession in the ’08, but the cost of living was not even close to what it is today,” he said. “These poor workers will suffer and break my heart.
“So I will tell people, listen, we will continue to draw a good quality product, be productive, do what we can to support, demonstrate that we are the best workforce in the world and hope we can overcome this.”
