President Trump plans to sign an executive order Tuesday that will walk back some tariffs for carmakers, administration officials said, removing some levies that Ford, General Motors and others have complained would backfire on U.S. manufacturing by raising the cost of production and squeezing their profits.
The changes will modify Mr. Trump’s tariffs so that carmakers who pay a 25 percent tariff on imported cars are not subject to other levies, for example on steel and aluminum, officials said in a call with reporters Tuesday.
Carmakers will also be able to qualify for tariff relief for a proportion of the cost of their imported components, though those benefits will be phased out over the next two years.
The decision to reduce the scope of the tariffs is the latest sign that the Trump administration’s decision to impose stiff levies on nearly all trading partners has created chaos and economic uncertainty for American companies.
On Tuesday, General Motors said it would abandon a previous forecast for solid profit growth this year as a result of the uncertainty created by Mr. Trump’s trade policies. The carmaker, which sells more vehicles in the United States than any other company, said that any profit prediction would be a “guess.”
“The prior guidance cannot be relied upon,” Paul Jacobson, G.M.’s chief financial officer, said during a conference call with reporters.
