Ford CEO Jim Farley at the company’s Dearborn, Michigan, plant where it’s building the electric F-150 Lightning on April 26, 2022.
CNBC | Michael Wayland
DETROIT — President Donald Trump‘s tariffs, both implemented and just threatened, are causing “chaos” for the U.S. automotive industry, according to Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley.
The chief executive of America’s second largest automaker described 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, as well as threatened levies of the same amount on Mexico and Canada as adding “a lot of cost and a lot of chaos” to the industry.
“This is what we’re dealing with right now,” Farley said Tuesday during a Wolfe Research investment conference.
Farley and incoming Ford CFO Sherry House said a majority of the company’s steel and aluminum are domestically sourced; however, there are suppliers to the automaker that source such materials from outside of the country, which could have an impact on costs.
Farley seemed most concerned about potential duties on goods from Mexico and the U.S., saying a 25% tariff that could go into effect as soon as March 1 would be “devastating” and “blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we’ve never seen.”
