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Mini story / Trade & tariffs

“Reciprocal” does not mean equal.

Look at the same car category in both directions: Canada, China, Europe and Mexico show very different tariff gaps.

Editorial snapshot · Trade: July 2026 · Cash: August 2026 · Rates: 8 September 2026. Not a live tracker.

“Reciprocal” does not mean equal.

For the same type of car, China and Canada charge more on U.S. imports than the U.S. charges in return. For Europe and Mexico, the pattern is reversed.

Latest tariff estimates · same car category in both directions

Trading partnerU.S. tariff on
partner’s cars
Partner charges
U.S. cars
Canada15.0%25.0%
Mexico15.0%0.0%
European Union15.0%0.0%
China32.5%53.3%
Rates carried forward to 8 September 2026 from the latest available effective-date observations. These are product-specific estimates, not each country’s average tariff.
Read the chart data and source notes
Applied tariffs on the same car category, 8 September 2026
PartnerU.S. on partner cars (%)Partner on U.S. cars (%)
Canada1525
Mexico150
European Union150
China32.553.3

WTO–IMF Tariff Tracker · Applied tariffs, HS2022 870323, effective-date observations through 2026-09-08 · Extracted 2026-09-20.

Not the legal bill for every shipment; origin, detail and exemptions matter. Not all duties are retaliation.

Source: WTO–IMF tariff data. All applied duties are included; not every duty is a retaliatory measure.

Matching the product makes this comparison more interpretable than comparing two national averages. But it does not make the rates a complete measure of who gains: trade volumes, exemptions, prices and costs to domestic buyers still matter.

Source dates, definitions and the complete seven-chart story →