Auto trade associations representing General Motors, Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen AG, Hyundai Motor Co, Ford Motor Co, and nearly every other major automaker, are part of the coalition dubbed “Driving American Jobs.”
The coalition is backing a $500,000, four-week advertising campaign aimed at convincing Trump and voters that the cross-border agreement is beneficial to all three countries in boosting the automotive sector and keeping jobs, despite what the White House has been saying.
It has taken nine months for the auto industry to finally speak up after Trump took office in January. Initial efforts by automakers to appease the Trump White House, agreeing to back his administration’s potentially massive changes to a trade policy that could be damaging, appear to have been abandoned.
The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, has been with us since 1994, and as Jalopnik points out, has largely shaped the automotive industry, supply chains and assembly plants across Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
Jennifer Thomas, vice president of federal affairs at the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said in a statement: “Pulling out of NAFTA would lead to a decrease in vehicle production, a decline in jobs and an increase in what our customers spend when buying a new vehicle. This would also have an impact on our abilities to export vehicles to foreign markets.”
Last week, during the most recent round of talks over NAFTA, Trump wanted to change the rules regarding the origin of autos, which are used to determine how much of an auto is made in a certain place. His proposed rules were deemed to be “untenable for automakers, as well as Mexico and Canada,” reports Reuters.
The automakers coalition points out that NAFTA is responsible for $1.2 trillion in annual trade between the three countries. “We need you to tell your elected officials that you don’t change the game in the middle of a comeback. We’re winning with NAFTA,” the group said on its website.
In an interview that aired on Sunday on the Fox Business Network, Trump said the deal would “probably” be renegotiated, but said he will withdraw if it is not fair. “We can’t allow the world to look at us as a whipping post. Not going to happen anymore,” Trump said.
Under NAFTA rules, at least 62.5 percent of the material in a car or light truck made in the region must be from North America to be able to enter the marketplace tariff-free. Trump wants that percentage changed to 85 percent, along with securing 50 percent of the total for the United States.
