Stellantis Halting Production in Windsor for Two Weeks
With 25-percent U.S. tariffs on foreign-made automobiles and parts kicking in today, Stellantis is halting production at its Windsor assembly plant in Ontario for the weeks of April 7 and 14.
The news was first reported by Unifor Local 444 on its Facebook page Wednesday night, but the automaker has since confirmed the pause.
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“Immediate actions we must take include temporarily pausing production at some of our Canadian and Mexican assembly plants, which will have an impact to several of our U.S. powertrain and stamping facilities that support those operations,” Stellantis told Automotive News Canada.
Operations at the Windsor plant, which builds Chrysler minivans and the Dodge Charger Daytona, will resume the week of April 21.
As part of his “Liberation Day” speech at the White House on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that vehicles from Canada and Mexico that meet CUSMA's trade rules will be hit by the 25-percent tariff only on the non-American content. Canadian-built vehicles use nearly 50 percent U.S. parts on average.
Trump’s plan is to force automakers to move their production facilities to the U.S. and create tens of thousands of jobs in the process. However, industry representatives and analysts have warned that such moves could take anywhere between 5-10 years.
In the meantime, the new tariffs are expected to increase vehicle prices both in the U.S. and Canada by thousands of dollars.