{"id":802,"date":"2025-01-29T07:42:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T07:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/defending-michigans-auto-industry-whitmer-warns-of-tariff-risks\/"},"modified":"2025-01-29T07:42:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T07:42:05","slug":"defending-michigans-auto-industry-whitmer-warns-of-tariff-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/defending-michigans-auto-industry-whitmer-warns-of-tariff-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending Michigan\u2019s Auto Industry, Whitmer Warns of Tariff Risks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a leading Democrat from a critical battleground state, on Wednesday subtly warned against President-elect Donald J. Trump\u2019s tariff threats targeting Canada, even as she stressed her broader willingness to work with him on the cusp of his second inauguration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Her speech, at the Detroit Auto Show, offered among the clearest examples yet of how Democrats from states that Mr. Trump carried are seeking to balance fresh overtures to the incoming president with their staunch opposition to some of his policy proposals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Speaking at a convention center just across the Detroit River from Windsor, Ont., Ms. Whitmer described strong cultural and industrial ties between the two cities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Using tariffs as punishment, she said, risks \u201cdamaging supply chains, slowing production lines and cutting jobs on both sides of the border.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Whitmer did not mention Mr. Trump by name as she broached the subject, but he has threatened to impose tariffs on imports from Canada if the country does not reduce the flow of migrants and fentanyl to the United States. The Ontario Premier Doug Ford has discussed retaliation, including threatening to disrupt the electricity supply from the province to the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI am not opposed to tariffs outright, but we cannot treat them like a one-size-fits-all solution, and we certainly shouldn\u2019t use them to punish our closest trading partners,\u201d Ms. Whitmer said, arguing that such an approach could embolden China.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey would love nothing more than for us, to watch us cripple America\u2019s auto ecosystem all by ourselves,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a matter of national security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Whitmer also noted that components of automobiles often cross the U.S.-Canada border more than once in the production process. Tariffs imposed each time, she suggested, could mean \u201cyou\u2019ll pay more to buy a Silverado, fix the engine of your Mustang, or replace the fender on your Jeep Grand Cherokee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The comments were part of a wide-ranging speech about her economic vision and about responding to the challenges and competition confronting Michigan\u2019s auto industry, both internationally and from other states. The broader industry accounts for 20 percent of Michigan\u2019s work force and contributes $304 billion to the state\u2019s economy annually, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitchamber.com\/research\/regional-overview\/industries\/automotive-mobility\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">according to the Detroit Regional Chamber.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe must stay nimble to support businesses that are already here and win new ones, too,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can\u2019t just unilaterally disarm, like some on the far left and far right would have us do.\u201d She told Republicans that to truly fix the state\u2019s roads, new revenue would be necessary, while telling Democrats that \u201cfiscally responsible cuts&#8221; were also needed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Throughout, Ms. Whitmer peppered her remarks with promises to work on a bipartisan basis both locally and nationally, an approach that has taken on new urgency after Democrats in November lost control of the Michigan House of Representatives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She also extended those gestures explicitly to Mr. Trump, who flipped Michigan in November, four years after President Biden won the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Noting that Michiganders had twice supported both herself and Mr. Trump, Ms. Whitmer said, they \u201cexpect us to find common ground.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Whitmer\u2019s comments stood in contrast to the more combative stances that elected officials from some deeply Democratic states have taken.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI don\u2019t want to pretend we\u2019re always going to agree, but I will always seek collaboration first,\u201d said Ms. Whitmer, who has clashed for years with Mr. Trump. \u201cI won\u2019t go looking for fights. I won\u2019t back down from them either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In an interview on Tuesday, Ms. Whitmer said she wanted to \u201credouble my efforts to connect with him after the inauguration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cPresident Trump cares about Michigan, he spent a lot of time here in Michigan and Michigan helped elect him to the White House,\u201d she said of a man who has often been <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/08\/25\/mcmaster-trump-russia-putin-manipulate-00176287\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">described as susceptible to flattery<\/a>. \u201cI want to make sure that we don\u2019t take our eye off the ball and that we are really focused on using tariffs as a scalpel and not a, you know, a sledgehammer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During her speech, Ms. Whitmer walked a careful line on a hot-button issue in the state: the transition to electric vehicles. She said the definition of the auto industry had expanded to include not only part makers and assembly plants, but also \u201cbattery factories, software companies, chip fabs and startups.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe don\u2019t care what you drive,\u201d she said to applause. \u201cWe just care that it\u2019s made right here in Michigan, by Michigan workers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a leading Democrat from a critical battleground state, on Wednesday subtly warned against President-elect Donald J. Trump\u2019s tariff threats targeting Canada, even as she stressed her broader willingness to work with him on the cusp of his second inauguration. Her speech, at the Detroit Auto Show, offered among the clearest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[532,530,533,531,283,395,535,534],"class_list":["post-802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-auto","tag-defending","tag-industry","tag-michigans","tag-risks","tag-tariff","tag-warns","tag-whitmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insuracarelife.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}