President Trump’s auto tariffs remain in place even after he paused many other levies. In Solihull, where Jaguar Land Rover employs 9,000 people and has suspended exports to the United States, residents are anxious.
President Trump’s auto tariffs remain in place even after he paused many other levies. In Solihull, where Jaguar Land Rover employs 9,000 people and has suspended exports to the United States, residents are anxious.
Reporting from Solihull, England
Solihull, a market town in England’s West Midlands, is home to one of Britain’s largest car factories, run by the luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover.
The factory, a collection of low-slung gray buildings spread over 300 acres, does not tower physically over Solihull. But its influence here is vast. Nine thousand people work directly for Jaguar Land Rover, known as JLR, while many more are employed by its contractors.
So President Trump’s introduction of a 25 percent tariff on imported cars — which remains in place despite the pause on steep so-called “reciprocal” tariffs announced on Wednesday — has caused anxiety in this town of around 218,000 people.
JLR, which sells about a fifth of its cars in the United States, responded Saturday by announcing that it would pause shipments to the U.S. for the month of April. The company is one of Britain’s biggest car manufacturers and exported about 38,000 cars to the United States in the third quarter of 2024 alone.
In Solihull town center on Tuesday, Ben Slade, 42, said he and his family were watching the news with concern. “My brother-in-law works in the Solihull JLR, and I know how many cars they’ve got waiting to be shipped out to America,” Mr. Slade said. His brother-in-law had three children, he said, “so it’s a very nervy time for my sister. Lots of people are just making a bit of a joke about it in the usual British fashion, but I think everybody is nervous.”
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