WASHINGTON — The UAW supports fundamental changes to NAFTA and actions to address China’s trade surplus in auto parts, but reserves judgment on the Trump administration’s consideration of 25 percent tariffs across all auto and auto parts imports, Legislative Director Josh Nassar told a Senate panel Wednesday.
U.S. trade policy should not be looked at in isolation, he said, because the problem of lost manufacturing jobs and lower wages can be blamed on many factors, such as tax laws that reward offshore production, inadequate workforce development programs and infrastructure investment, the lack of an industrial policy that encourages development of electric vehicles and weak labor laws.
The Commerce Department study of whether the loss of domestic auto capacity constitutes a threat to national security makes sense, “but that doesn’t mean we are going to naturally endorse what the administration decides to do,” Nassar said.
“The UAW believes that tariffs are a tool, not a comprehensive plan for ensuring industries of the future are created and built in the U.S. … We hope the administration will ultimately take a measured and targeted approach to bolster domestic manufacturing.”
Discount for American cars?
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, an outspoken critic of U.S. trade policy who has sympathized with some of President Donald Trump’s efforts to make it more difficult for companies to move factories to low-wage countries, scolded General Motors for giving pink slips this year to 1,200 workers who make the Chevrolet Cruze at its Lordstown plant in northeastern Ohio, after previously eliminating 1,000 jobs on the third shift, and immediately announcing plans to build the Chevy Blazer crossover in Mexico for sale in the U.S.
He said his “American Cars and American Jobs Act” would discourage that type of corporate behavior by giving consumers who buy an American-made car (at least half U.S. content) a $3,500 discount and taking away tax breaks Congress enacted.
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