"The company has said tariffs on imported steel, imposed earlier this year by the Trump administration, have cost it $1 billion."
Just FYI: $1B could pay the average annual salary of over 24,000 GM assembly line workers in the USA
(A GM assembly line worker makes about 41k/yr: glassdoor.com/Hourly-Pay/Gen…).
(A GM assembly line worker makes about 41k/yr: glassdoor.com/Hourly-Pay/Gen…).
(Obviously, it's not that simple. But the US government has implemented a policy to increase US steel/aluminum prices - and therefore US automakers' costs. Reap, sow, etc etc.)
The data are clear: Trump's tariffs turned the USA into an island of high priced steel (& aluminum), thus raising downstream US manufacturers' (incl automakers) costs & making them instantly less competitive than their overseas counterparts. 
(Those are US-wide, not just import, prices btw; domestic steelmakers raised their prices too.)
This isn't to say the tariffs *caused* GM's decision - they almost certainly didn't. But they just-as-certainly didn't help, especially when combined w other Trump trade policies...
This isn't to say the tariffs *caused* GM's decision - they almost certainly didn't. But they just-as-certainly didn't help, especially when combined w other Trump trade policies...
Imagine you're a CEO of a multinational automaker w/ global mfg operations. The USA is a mature market (steady, perhaps declining demand) w a productive workforce & good domestic policies. BUT it also has 1) steel/aluminum tariffs (+ retaliation); 2) new NAFTA rules of origin...
3) possible car & car parts tariffs; 4) a trade war w/ a major input supplier & massive source of new customers (China); 5) few FTAs & no new ones (like TPP) on the near-term horizon - All of which increase US operations' costs &/or limit opptys to export to high-growth mkts...
(You also have an, ahem, erratic president who repeatedly threatens your supply chain & foreign customers, plus a lot of uncertainty re future policy.)
Now say you have to make a major long-term decision re future operations. Where will you invest? What will you shutter/upgrade?
Now say you have to make a major long-term decision re future operations. Where will you invest? What will you shutter/upgrade?
Exactly.
