LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In the U.S., the Conference of Mayors is urging President Trump to reverse course on these tariffs. In a statement Wednesday, they called for trade policy that, quote, "protects businesses, workers and families." For the view from Lansing, Michigan, we've got Mayor Andy Schor on the line with us. Good morning, Mayor. Thank you for being on the program.
ANDY SCHOR: Good morning. I appreciate the chance to be on.
FADEL: So you are one of the mayors calling on President Trump to reverse course, and Lansing was already feeling the impact of the tariffs placed on Canada. Now there are these new tariffs. Your city has two GM assembly plants. I mean, what will this mean for your residents?
SCHOR: Well, my biggest concern, especially when it comes to the auto plants and cars and auto manufacturing in general, is that prices are going to go up. You know, we do a lot of cross-border work. You know, we send parts across, and then parts come back. And we make the cars here, but if cars go up, you know, eight, nine, $10,000 a car, then people are going to buy less cars. If people buy less cars, then that threatens any of our auto plants. If the auto plants aren't selling the cars that they make and they're not making more cars, it threatens shifts. There could be reduction in shifts. There could be, you know, the worst scenario is a closure of a plant, and all of that would be tragic, terrible for our economy.
You know, years ago, we fought to make sure that plants don't close, and we've got two of them here. In one of them, Lansing Grand River, we're ending the Camaro. GM is ending the Camaro, and we want to make sure there's new product. But if people aren't buying cars, then we're not making them. And if we're not making them, that's going to - you know, it's going to force layoffs and less shifts and affect our workers and our economy. So that's a huge concern, especially when our residents make average of $48,000 a year. They can't afford $10,000 more for a new car.
FADEL: I mean, we've heard from this administration while tariffs will be higher on cars made abroad, and that will give American-made cars an edge. What do you say to that argument?
SCHOR: Well, I think that assumes that everything that's done elsewhere is going to be reshored into America. And certainly, I'd love to see that, but the hurt is going to be huge. You know, if it's billions of dollars to create a new auto plant or to build new manufacturing, we'd love to see it. But to be honest with you, it doesn't guarantee it's going to happen. It just guarantees that prices are going to go up.
So if prices are going to go up and we're not going to see, you know, new jobs as a result, especially not anytime soon, it's just going to have negative impacts. You know, we want - in Lansing and all across, especially the north, you know, we want free and fair trade. We want to make sure that it's fair, that it's fair going both ways, but what was done is going to be - is going to hurt our residents, from auto to groceries to steel. You know, we're on the razor's edge when it comes to building, and we've got a lot of development coming. And if costs go up for steel or for wood, that could impact and reduce development, which impacts and reduces jobs. So I'm concerned about all of that.
FADEL: Well, these tariffs are now a reality. So how are you preparing as mayor for the economic impact that you said you're concerned about? I mean, what will your city do?
SCHOR: Certainly, we're trying to do as much as we can here. You know, we work with, again, developers and others. We're pushing the federal government to retain some of the grants that were given to us. We were given a grant. GM was given a grant of $500 million to convert one of our plants to EV or PEV, the hybrid cars. We need to make sure those are still going to come so GM can convert.
You know, we're going to continue to make cars. We just have to figure out what's the cost going to be when auto parts go up. You know, we do a lot of our own advanced manufacturing here. We've got a food testing company called Neogen that does food testing. So we're doing everything we can to incent doing more advanced manufacturing here, but there's only so much we can do when the federal government cuts your legs out from underneath you with trade.
FADEL: Lansing Mayor Andy Schor, thank you for joining us.
SCHOR: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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