“The Port of Baltimore is typically the nation’s biggest importer of foreign vehicles”
Donald Trump’s disastrous trade war with our allies will cost Marylanders, especially those interested in buying or insuring a car. The Baltimore Banner reports that the Port of Baltimore, “a top importer of cars for more than a decade,” will be hit particularly hard by Trump’s 25% tariffs on car imports that was announced this week.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT.
Baltimore Banner: Trump’s Tariffs on Cars Hit Baltimore’s Top Import
By Julie Bykowicz and Hayes Gardner
March 27, 2025
- President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. is enacting 25% tariffs next week on all foreign-made passenger vehicles could hit Baltimore especially hard: The Port of Baltimore has been a top importer of cars for more than a decade.
- The new tariffs also will apply to key automobile parts (engines, transmissions, power train parts, and electrical components), according to a White House fact sheet.
- The president said the auto tariffs would go into effect next Wednesday, April 2, 2025, and that the U.S. would begin collecting them the following day.
- The additional levies mean automakers could face higher costs and lower sales, with price increases being passed along to new car buyers.
- Thousands of dollars more on a car purchase will “price a lot of people” out of the market, Kitzmiller said.
- Free trade agreements prompted the creation of supply chains where parts and vehicles travel back and forth between the U.S., Mexico and Canada multiple times before final assembly… Tariffs could “destroy” those supply chains, Dai said. That would affect cars thought of as domestic and foreign alike.
- The New York Times has an analysis pointing out the difficulty of determining which cars are really imports.
- The tariffs also will make insurance rates rise. A recent report from Insurify, an online aggregator that helps people shop for policies, estimates an 8% rise in rates by the end of the year — a steeper increase than what it predicted before the proposed tariffs.