Trump threatens John Deere with 200% tariff if moves production to Mexico

Former President Donald Trump threatened on Monday John Deere If agricultural manufacturers move production to factories in Mexico, they are subject to a 200% tariff.

“They announced a few days ago that they were going to move a lot of manufacturing to Mexico,” the Republican candidate said at a policy roundtable hosted by the Protect America Initiative in Smithton, Pennsylvania.

“I'm just telling John Deere right now: If you do this, we're going to put a 200% tariff on everything you want to sell into the United States,” said Trump, who has made tariffs a key focus of his campaign. economic policy.

John Deere has declare The company plans to move production of some models to Mexico, a move that has resulting in layoffs at an Iowa facility.

“It hurts our farmers. It hurts our manufacturing,” Trump said on Monday.

John Deere noted in an interview with CNBC that one of the company's pages website Titled “John Deere's Commitment to American Manufacturing,” it touts its investment in American factories and workers.

The page also states that “in order to enable our U.S. facilities to undertake these high value-added activities, it will sometimes be necessary to move less complex operations, such as cab assembly, to other locations.”

Monday appeared to be the first time Trump mentioned John Deere by name. The former president's comments also seemed off-the-cuff, prompted only by the presence of a John Deere tractor as the backdrop for the event.

As of 6 p.m. ET, Deere shares were down 1.7% in after-hours trading after Trump issued the threat shortly after Monday's close.

The former president issued a similar threat on Monday to automakers that build vehicles in Mexico.

“We're going to have high tariffs of 100 to 200 percent on those cars that come in here and they're not going to be competitive anymore,” he said, “so you're better off staying in Michigan.”