Donald Trump has indicated that the US could impose tariffs on imported cars, days after General Motors announced it was cutting tens of thousands of American jobs.
The car giant is closing five plants in the US and Canada and cutting 14,700 roles as part of a major restructuring aimed at reducing costs.
On Wednesday, the US president said in a tweet that if tariffs of 25 per cent were put on cars being imported to the US, GM would not be closing its factories in the country.
He said that “the countries that send us cars have taken advantage of the US for decades” and added: “The President has great power on this issue - Because of the GM event, it is being studied now!”
His hints at new motor tariffs followed an earlier threat to cut all subsidies granted to GM.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mr Trump tweeted: “Very disappointed with General Motors and their CEO, Mary Barra, for closing plants in Ohio, Michigan and Maryland.”
“Nothing being closed in Mexico & China. The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get!
“We are now looking at cutting all @GM subsidies, including for electric cars. General Motors made a big China bet years ago when they built plants there (and in Mexico) - don’t think that bet is going to pay off.”
Mr Trump has imposed tariffs on $250bn (£196bn) worth of Chinese goods so far this year, with Beijing retaliating with its own levies on $110bn worth of US imports.
He is due to meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, at the G20 summit in the coming days, with the aim of easing fears of a trade war.
However, the US appeared to ramp up tensions with Beijing last week when the US trade representative’s office released a 53-page report in which it accused China of conducting a global espionage campaign to collect sensitive commercial information.
