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Last month, US President Donald Trump had said he would introduce new tariffs to protect the manufacture of medium- and heavy-duty trucks from outside competition.

United States President Donald Trump has said that all medium- and heavy-duty trucks imported into the country will face a 25 percent tariff rate starting November 1, a significant escalation of his effort to protect US companies from foreign competition.

Trump made the announcement on Monday.

Last month, Trump had said heavy truck imports would face new duties on October 1 on national security grounds, saying the new tariffs were to protect manufacturers from “unfair outside competition” and that the move would benefit companies such as Paccar-owned Peterbilt and Kenworth and Daimler Truck-owned Freightliner.

Under trade deals reached with Japan and the European Union, the US has agreed to 15 percent tariffs on light-duty vehicles, but it is not clear if that rate will be set for larger vehicles.

The Trump administration has also allowed producers to deduct the value of US components from tariffs paid on light-duty vehicles assembled in Canada and Mexico.

Larger vehicles include trucks for delivery, garbage pickup, and public utilities; buses for transit, shuttles, and schools; tractor-trailer trucks; semitrucks; and heavy-duty vocational vehicles.

Impact on allies

The US Chamber of Commerce earlier urged the US Commerce Department not to impose new truck tariffs, noting the top five import sources are Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany, and Finland, “all of which are allies or close partners of the United States posing no threat to US national security”.

Mexico is the largest exporter of medium- and heavy-duty trucks to the US. A study released in January said imports of those larger vehicles from Mexico have tripled since 2019 to around 340,000 today, according to government statistics.

Under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal, medium- and heavy-duty trucks move free of tariffs if at least 64 percent of a heavy truck’s value originates in North America, via parts like engines and axles, raw materials such as steel, or assembly labour.

Tariffs could also affect Chrysler’s parent company Stellantis, which produces heavy-duty Ram trucks and commercial vans in Mexico. Stellantis had been lobbying the White House not to impose steep tariffs on its Mexican-made trucks.

Sweden’s Volvo Group is building a $700m heavy-truck factory in Monterrey, Mexico, due to start operations in 2026.

Mexico is home to 14 manufacturers and assemblers of buses, trucks, and tractor trucks, and two manufacturers of engines, according to the US International Trade Administration.

Mexico opposed new tariffs, telling the US Commerce Department in May that all Mexican trucks exported to the US have on average 50 percent US content, including diesel engines.

Last year, the US imported almost $128bn in heavy vehicle parts from Mexico, accounting for approximately 28 percent of total US imports, Mexico said.

The US president pledged a 100 percent tariff for films made outside the country.

United States President Donald Trump has said he wants to levy a 100 percent import tax on movies made outside the country, saying the movie business “has been stolen” from Hollywood and the US.

Posting on his Truth Social platform on Monday, the US president said the tariff was intended to “solve this long time, never ending problem.”

“Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby,’” he wrote.

“California, with its weak and incompetent Governor, has been particularly hard hit!”, he added, in reference to California governor Gavin Newsom, who is a common foil of Trump’s.

It was unclear how these tariffs would operate, since movies and TV shows can be transmitted digitally without going through ports.

Nor was it clear what this would mean for US films that depend on foreign locations as part of the story, such as the James Bond franchise.

Analysts note that many films are international co-productions. They are also not goods that are imported in a conventional way, meaning the government would have to determine how to value them and when they even qualify as imports.

Trump made a similar threat in May, directing the Department of Commerce to immediately begin imposing a 100 percent tariff on films “produced in Foreign Lands”.

At the time, he complained the US film industry was “DYING a very fast death” due to other countries luring filmmakers and studios away with generous incentives, describing it as a national security threat.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency on how the tariffs would be implemented.

“There is too much uncertainty, and this latest move raises more questions than answers,” said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore.

“For now, as things stand, costs are likely to increase, and this will inevitably be passed on to consumers,” he said.

The president on Monday, on his same social media platform, also promised “substantial” tariffs on any country that makes its furniture outside the US.

He said he was doing so to make the state of North Carolina “GREAT again”, saying it had “completely lost its furniture business to China, and other Countries”.