All medium- and heavy-duty trucks imported into the United States will face a 25 per cent tariff rate staring Nov. 1, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday, a significant escalation of his effort to protect U.S. companies from foreign competition.

Trump said last month that heavy truck imports would face new duties as soon as Oct. 1 on national security grounds, saying the new tariffs were to protect manufacturers from “unfair outside competition” and that the move would benefit companies such as Paccar-owned Peterbilt and Kenworth and Daimler Truck-owned Freightliner.

Under trade deals reached with Japan and the European Union, the United States has agreed to 15 per cent tariffs on light-duty vehicles, but it is not clear if they will face that rate for larger vehicles.

The Trump administration has also allowed producers to deduct the value of U.S. components from tariffs paid on light-duty vehicles assembled in Canada and Mexico.

Larger vehicles include everything from delivery trucks, garbage trucks, public utility trucks, transit, shuttle, and school buses and tractor-trailer trucks as well as semi-trucks and heavy-duty vocational vehicles.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce earlier urged the Commerce Department not to impose new truck tariffs, noting the top five import sources are Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany and Finland “all of which are allies or close partners of the United States posing no threat to U.S. national security.”

Mexico is the largest exporter of medium- and heavy-duty trucks to the United States. A study released in January said imports of those larger vehicles from Mexico have tripled since 2019 to around 340,000 today, according to government statistics.

Medium, heavy trucks under CUSMA

Under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement (CUSMA), medium- and heavy-duty trucks move free of tariffs iif at least 64 per cent of a heavy truck’s value originates in North America, in the form of parts such as engines and axles, raw materials such as steel, or assembly labour.

Tariffs could also affect Chrysler-parent Stellantis, which produces heavy-duty Ram trucks and commercial vans in Mexico. Stellantis had been lobbying the White House not to impose steep tariffs on its Mexican-made trucks.

Sweden’s Volvo Group is building a $700 million US heavy-truck factory in Monterrey, Mexico, due to start operations in 2026.

Mexico is home to 14 manufacturers and assemblers of buses, trucks and tractor trucks, and two manufacturers of engines, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration.

Mexico opposed new tariffs, telling the Commerce Department in May that all Mexican trucks exported to the United States have on average 50 per cent U.S. content, including diesel engines.

Last year, the United States imported almost $128 billion in heavy vehicle parts from Mexico, accounting for approximately 28 per cent of total U.S. imports, Mexico said.