One year after U.S. President Donald Trump levied tariffs on the Canadian auto industry, leaders in the industry say they are eager to see an arrangement that restores predictability to the Canada-U.S. trade relationship.

The president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association (CVMA) said he was initially optimistic that the tariffs would be temporary and that Canada would arrive at a new trade agreement with the U.S. that would see them removed.

Now, he said, he’s concerned by the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a resolution in sight. 

“Through 2025, manufacturers in Canada were exposed to about $5 billion in total tariff costs,” Kingston said. 

“You cannot have a commercially viable automotive plant in Canada facing tariffs of that size.”

Diversification alone will not sustain the Canadian auto industry at its current size without access to the U.S. market, Kingston said. 

Motor vehicle exports down in January

Under the rules imposed by the Trump administration last year, Canadian-assembled passenger vehicles are subject to a 25 per cent tariff on their non-U.S. content. Parts that are not compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement are also subject to a 25 per cent tariff.

Exports of motor vehicles and parts fell 21.2 per cent to $5.4 billion in January of this year, the lowest level since September 2021, according to Statistics Canada. 

Exports of passenger cars and light trucks declined 32.5 per cent, which the statistics agency attributed to prolonged seasonal production stoppages related to changes in the models produced.

That’s after exports of the same products reached $6.1 billion in January 2025, their highest point since May 2019.

The national president of Unifor, which represents workers at the Stellantis Windsor Assembly Plant, said workers have been on the front lines of the trade war with the U.S.

“President Trump called it liberation,” she said.

“The only thing liberated as a result of these crushing tariffs have been auto workers and manufacturing workers being liberated from their good union jobs on both sides of the border.”

That includes around 3,000 works at the Stellantis Brampton Assembly Plant, around 1,200 at the CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll and thousands more working in the auto parts sector and supply chain, she said.

Payne said the addition of a third shift at the Windsor Assembly Plant has been a bright light in what she called a brutal year.

She said Windsor was able to buck the trend because it’s not easy for Stellantis to relocate production of the products built there. 

Industry and labour working together, industry leader says

The president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association (APMA) praised Payne’s leadership in a conversation with CBC on Thursday.

“I don’t think the industry has ever worked closer with labour unions than they have through this crisis, and that’s important,” Flavio Volpe said.

Volpe said the impact of the tariffs on parts manufacturers has varied depending on where a company’s customer base is concentrated.

Companies that ship primarily into the U.S. are doing not badly, he said.

“Michigan assembly has had an off year but not a terrible year,” he added.

But suppliers who sell primarily to Canada are feeling much more anxiety, Volpe said.

“The pressure from their customers is, ‘Hey, by the way, I know we’re all in the same soup, but you’ve got to reduce your cost to me because you’re either going to cost-share these tariffs … or you’re not going to be around either,’” he said.

Workers in Windsor have learned to be extremely resilient during manufacturing crises and tend to panic less, he said.

But he said, they also bear an added responsibility that other workers don’t: they tend to be thrust into the spotlight and have their challenges politicized. 

“The media is sometimes outside their workplace wanting to know how they’re feeling,” he said.

“So at times like this, I think of the soaked-up anxiety [of] the people at the manufacturing facilities.”