- A lobby group representing General Motors, Ford and Stellantis attacked Trump for prioritizing a deal with the U.K. over the two largest U.S. trading partners on the country's doorstep. “Under this deal, it will now be cheaper to import a U.K. vehicle with very little U.S. content than a USMCA compliant vehicle from Mexico or Canada that is half American parts,” they said.
Detroit’s three automakers blasted the White House for throwing the U.S. car industry under the proverbial bus with his U.K. trade deal.
On Thursday, a lobby group representing General Motors, Ford and Stellantis expressed “disappointment” their U.K. competitors are getting a better shake than they are despite British cars largely lacking any appreciable American content in the form of drivetrain and chassis components.
“Under this deal, it will now be cheaper to import a U.K. vehicle with very little U.S. content than a USMCA compliant vehicle from Mexico or Canada that is half American parts,” said Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council.
Blunt’s criticism comes after Trump negotiated the tentative outline of a deal that would see among other concessions the U.S. drop its 25% sectoral tariff down to 10% of a vehicle’s value, a level that reflects the U.K.’s own duty on imported cars.
While that is only valid for the first 100,000 vehicles—with any cars above and beyond that once again subject to the full duty—it neatly matches the volumes exported from Britain last year. This is a relatively minor amount compared with the roughly 16 million light vehicles sold new last year, of which half were imported.
Blunt furthermore criticized that the “America First” president ought to have prioritized talks that help out his own domestic industry first, rather than invest political time and capital for the benefit of British rivals.
“This hurts American automakers, suppliers and auto workers. We hope this preferential access for U.K. vehicles over North American ones does not set a precedent for future negotiations with Asian and European competitors,” Blunt continued.
'Severe and immediate threat'
The White House pushed back against Blunt in a statement to Fortune.
"No president has taken a greater personal interest in reviving the American auto industry than President Trump," spokesman Kush Desai said. "The Trump administration is working hand-in-glove with automakers to re-shore manufacturing that is critical to our national and economic security, including with custom-tailored tariff relief and deregulatory policies."
The timing of the tentative deal—which is itself only a broad outline and has yet to be finalized—was however governed by political realities on each side of the Atlantic.
Both U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Trump have been under severe pressure of late. The former’s Labour party was just trounced in local elections while the U.S. president’s poll ratings have sunk after steering the country towards a possible recession over a trade war with his closest allies.
The agreement represents a much-needed win for the two struggling statesmen, with Trump trumpeting a “MAJOR TRADE DEAL” with a “BIG, AND HIGHLY RESPECTED COUNTRY” on Truth Social before it was actually official.
While Blunt took aim at the agreement, his counterpart from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders was all too happy to hail it as “great news” for his U.K. industry.
“The application of these tariffs was a severe and immediate threat to U.K. automotive exporters, so this deal will provide much needed relief,” said SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes.
Trump partial to Britain's handmade luxury cars like Rolls-Royce
Blunt’s candid criticism of the administration is unusual. Despite historically poor approval ratings for the president this early into a term, companies have been careful not to slight Trump given his reputation for governing based on instinct rather than studied policy analysis.
The president even confessed being inclined to reduce tariffs he had unilaterally imposed without Congressional consent since they were deemed critical to U.S. national security. On Thursday, Trump told reporters he gave them preferential treatment, because he personally was partial to Britain’s ultra-luxury car brands like McLaren, Bentley and Rolls-Royce, the latter of whom he readily accepted would not set up a dedicated factory in the United States.
“That’s really handmade stuff. They’ve been doing it for a long time in the same location,” he remarked. “So I said, ‘yeah, that would be good. Let’s help them out with that one’.”
Even though the 100,000-vehicle cap effectively puts a hard ceiling on further growth for the U.K. car industry, investors welcomed the trade deal by bidding shares in Aston Martin Lagonda, the only British stock-exchange listed automaker, higher some 14% in Thursday’s trading session.
This updates an earlier version of the story with a response from the Trump administration.
