Blunt said in an interview the U.S. companies and workers “definitely are at a disadvantage” because they face a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum and a 25% tariff on parts and finished vehicles, with some exceptions for products covered under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that went into effect in 2020.

A day after the United States reached a trade deal that imposes a 15 percent tariff on imports from Japan, President Donald Trump declared that U.S. business would “BOOM.” But early reads from auto analysts paint a murkier picture — if anything, some experts say, Japanese companies may benefit more than their rivals for now.