Ford and GM Seek Tariffs on Each Other, Consumers Want Neither

Ford wants tariffs on GM’s South Korea-made cars. GM wants tariffs on Ford batteries.

Which Automaker Is More American?

Here’s an amusing but unsurprising story in the Wall Street Journal regarding the rent-seeking behavior of big US automakers.

Please consider Ford and GM Are Locked in a New Battle Over Who’s the Most American Carmaker

The century-old clash between Detroit’s auto giants has a new battleground: America’s trade war with the rest of the world.

Behind the scenes, the crosstown rivals are clashing as each company jockeys for tailored tariffs and policies while claiming to be the most American automaker.

Ford, for instance, wants higher tariffs on imports from South Korea, where GM builds its most inexpensive cars. GM is targeting aspects of Ford’s electric-vehicle battery strategy.

Ford employs more factory workers and assembles more cars in the U.S. than any of its competitors; some 80% of the vehicles it sells in the U.S. are built there.

It is a point company executives highlight as they argue for higher tariffs on imported vehicles, particularly those from South Korea. That is where, they note, GM builds some 400,000 vehicles a year that it imports into the US—some of its most affordable models, but ones with already-thin profit margins.

Ford, meanwhile, wants lower duties on imported parts and materials, especially aluminum, which is subject to 50% duties. Ford is the industry’s biggest buyer of aluminum, which it uses for the bestselling F-150 pickup, and it has been forced to rely more heavily on imported aluminum after factory fires sidelined its biggest supplier. Administration officials have so far rebuffed Ford’s pleas on the issue.

GM makes a different case. The company argues that Ford relies on foreign parts and on Chinese technology for its electric-vehicle batteries. It is GM, they say, that is the bigger overall contributor to the U.S. workforce, when factoring in salaried employees as well as hourly workers. And that the pint-size SUVs that GM imports from South Korea are popular and accessible to everyday buyers.

GM last year tried to block federal funding for a huge Ford battery factory in Michigan, and continues to chide the other automaker for its reliance on Chinese battery technology. While GM is temporarily importing Chinese batteries to help keep costs down on its Chevy Bolt EV, it is scaling its own battery program and developing low-cost batteries in-house.

“We are not licensing somebody else’s technology from China. We’re building on GM battery know-how in America,” Kurt Kelty, GM’s vice president of batteries and sustainability, said in June as the company rolled out a plan to develop its own sodium-based batteries. 

The companies have clashed over a bill from Sens. Bernie Moreno (R., Ohio) and Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.) that would ban internet-connected Chinese vehicles from the U.S. market.

While the bill in its current form would ban many Chinese electric-vehicle components, it doesn’t include batteries themselves, allowing Ford to keep its battery venture in Michigan with Chinese firm CATL. GM has criticized that point and pushed for the bill to be changed, said a person familiar with the situation.

On one critical issue, the reworking of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the automakers are presenting a united front behind the scenes. Ford and GM, along with Jeep and Ram owner Stellantis, have all pressed the Trump administration to renew the continental trade deal and provide lower tariffs for cars and parts from North America than for the rest of the world, say people familiar with the conversations. 

Aluminum Prices Soared

The Consumer Always Loses

This economic madness goes beyond cars. For example, the car-makers want tariffs on cars but not steel or aluminum.

The steel and aluminum workers want their tariffs but they don’t like higher prices on the cars they buy.

As a result of Trump’s inane tariffs on aluminum and steel, the US pays the highest prices in the word.

Trump vs the Automakers on USMCA

Both GM and Ford want to keep making parts in Mexico.

However, Trump doesn’t. He wants Ford and GM to make parts here with more expensive labor, more expensive steel, and more expensive aluminum.

On August 13, 2026 I noted Trump’s Trade War With Canada on Verge of Becoming Economically Nasty

A USMCA trade deal breakdown with Canada is increasingly likely.

Neither automaker wants what Trump wants on USMCA.

If this economic idiocy does not convince you the loser of Trump’s tariffs and trade wars is the US consumer, then you are incapable of rational thought on tariffs.

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