Let’s take a pause. For now.

By Gary S. Vasilash

So let’s see: on Tuesday (yesterday) the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on everything coming from Canada and Mexico, including automobiles.

This afternoon (Wednesday) the Trump administration, through White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, announced that the automakers have a one-month reprieve.

Leavitt: “We spoke with the Big Three auto dealers. We are going to give a one-month exemption on any autos coming through USMCA.”

While it is possible that they talked to auto dealers—perhaps Leavitt is looking for some new wheels—odds are they talked with Big Three auto execs.

This may seem to be a quibble, but it goes to the point that if, indeed, Leavitt didn’t mean dealers—after all, dealers are probably not experts on the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that was orchestrated by Trump during his first administration—the administration isn’t exactly hitting on all cylinders when it comes to understanding the auto industry and this isn’t an encouraging statement from the White House.

To be sure, a month extension is not a bad thing.

But anyone who knows even a little about the way businesses operate—especially incredibly complex businesses like the auto industry—there needs to be a horizon of planning that isn’t merely a month long.

As you may recall, on February 3 he pushed back the tariffs by a month, to yesterday.

So this month-by-month situation is not good for the auto industry.

And let’s keep in mind that so far, at least, there are still 25% tariffs coming to steel and aluminum imports, and these are supposed to take effect March 12.

While he rolled copper into the materials he said he is going to put a tariff on, on February 25 he signed an executive order that launches “an investigation into how copper imports threaten America’s national security and economic stability.”

This means that the Commerce Department is supposed to report on the copper supply chain conditions and then make recommendations before tariffs go into effect. Unless he simply says to hell with waiting and puts tariffs on copper.

Perhaps it is a good thing he is doing what he can to minimize electric vehicle sales because EVs use a lot of copper.