Osamu Inoue, president of Sumitomo Electric, which makes parts for Volkswagen, Toyota and Stellantis, among others, said Trump’s threatened 25 per cent tariffs on Mexican goods would do more harm to US suppliers, which account for almost a third of car parts investment in Mexico.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to slap a 25-percent tariff on Mexican goods on February 1, a move that analysts say would deal a heavy blow to Latin America's second-largest economy.

On Monday and Tuesday, President Trump announced that he would be keeping one of his key campaign promises and imposing by Feb. 1 a 25% tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico as punishment for allowing drugs and migrants to cross into the United States as well as an additional 10% tariff on goods from China to penalize the country for sending