Washington said on Wednesday it will open a so-called Section
232 investigation into whether imports of vehicles and auto
parts harm national security. A similar investigation prefaced
the imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminium imports earlier
this year.
The probe prefaces mid-term elections in U.S. industrial
heartlands later this year and is seen as part of President
Trump's "America First" push to win back manufacturing jobs lost
to overseas competitors.
Pointing to a mixed bag of effects on U.S. producers after the
metals tariffs, analysts were cautious about predicting major
gains for U.S. firms and workers from the process.
"Measures like this are ultimately about protecting American
manufacturing jobs in states that voted for Trump rather than
national security," Morningstar analyst David Whiston said in a
note.
"We don't see these tariffs (if proposed) lasting forever and we
think (they) will ultimately cost American jobs."
Ford shares gained around half a percent while those in GM were
up less than 0.1 percent in premarket trade in New York,
compared to falls of 1.8 to 2.8 percent for German carmakers BMW
<BMWG.DE>, Daimler <DAIGn.DE> and Volkswagen <VOWG_p.DE>.
Shares of U.S. auto parts suppliers Aptiv Plc<APTV.N> and Lear
Corp <LEA.N>, which could also be affected by the probe, were
yet to begin trading on Thursday while those in German
competitor Continental AG <CONG.DE> fell 1.6 percent.
The United States imported 8.3 million vehicles in 2017 worth
$192 billion, including 2.4 million from Mexico, 1.8 million
from Canada, 1.7 million from Japan, 930,000 from South Korea
and 500,000 from Germany, according to U.S. government
statistics.
At the same time, the United States exported nearly 2 million
vehicles worldwide worth $57 billion.
(Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick
Graham)
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