STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (WXYZ) — All eyes were on President Donald Trump today as he announced a 10% tariff on all imports. It's been branded as 'Liberation Day" by the White House.
In the Rose Garden, Trump invited Brian Pannebecker, a Macomb County man and the founder of Autoworkers for Trump 2024, to the stage.
"My entire life I have watched plant after plant after plant in Detroit sitting idle, under-utilized," Pannebecker said, just moments after Trump made this announcement.
"Effective at midnight, we will impose a 25-percent tariff on all foreign-made automobiles," Trump said.
Local auto manufacturers have already been navigating the new tariffs, and I went to talk to one in Sterling Heights. We're also getting new analysis about what consumers can expect to pay if they're in the market for a new car.
FULL INTERVIEW: John McElroy of Autoline discusses the possible impacts of tariffs
Citic Dicastal is the largest manufacturer of aluminum wheels in the entire world, and because their products are made of aluminum, they're already feeling the effects of those tariffs.
For Dale Hadel, the Director of Sales, the tariffs have already been a reality.
"We're paying it on aluminum wheels. We'll be paying it on imports from Mexico. We'll be paying it on imported material from Canada. We'll be paying it on the final product coming in from China," he says.
Hadel tells me Citic Dicastal is headquartered in China.
"When you think about a 25% tariff, and let's say aluminum, just is $1 a pound, now it's $1.25 a pound, and that's a 30-pound wheel, you can do the math," he says.
I asked him what his biggest concern is right now.
"My fear is that this will slow down vehicle sales if there's a big bump in pricing that the automakers need to pass on to the consumer," Hadel says.
So, let's talk about that. Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group published a new report showing major increases per car.
"For American cars, and I'm talking about cars assembled in North America, $2500 the low end, $10,000 at the high end," says Patrick Anderson, CEO of the Anderson Economic Group.
And he says these are conservative estimates. For imports, it could reach $20,000 per car. And how does Michigan fare compared to the rest of the states in the US when it comes to these tariffs?
"There's no state that's more exposed than Michigan to tariffs on automobiles," says Anderson. "Now we're, we are - literally the epicenter of tariff effects is probably in the middle of the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor."
"The auto industry spent the last 20 years trying to find low-cost countries or low-cost content locations where they can have a competitive advantage by manufacturing, which has been enhanced by USMCA and all the incentives to locate there," says Hadel.
One of the theories right now is that there will be pain in the short term, but in the long term, there will be benefits. I asked Hadel if he agreed with that.
"I don't see that. I see there'll be, at least for the 5 to 7 year duration in front of us, I think you'll see some very significant pain," he says.
