Trump says Chinese OEMs could build vehicles in US, despite restrictive regulations
US president Donald Trump has said he wouldn’t oppose Chinese OEMs building vehicles in the US, if it avoided Chinese carmakers nearshoring in Mexico and shipping them to the US.
US president Donald Trump and People's Republic of China president Xi Jinping on May 14, 2026 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China
Source: White House
Despite his heavy tariffs on Chinese imports, Trump’s stance on Chinese OEMs has been to “let them come in”, provided the companies build the vehicles on US soil and hire US workers. In an interview on The Ingraham Angle on Friday, Trump said: “If China wanted to come in and open a plant to build their cars here, I’d be okay with that. Japan does it, but they hire our people. The big thing is they hire our people.”
Current US regulations prohibit the sale and import of connected vehicles containing Chinese software from 2027, and hardware in models from 2030. These rules, finalised by the Commerce Department in 2025, apply to vehicles manufactured in the US but owned or controlled by Chinese entities, such as Polestar.
In April this year, the US trade representative Jamieson Greer stated that the Trump administration had no plans to roll back the Biden-era restrictions on Chinese vehicle software and hardware. Now, Trump’s comments create uncertainty in the continuity in US automotive trade policy towards China.
On September 3, a group representing the US’ major carmakers urged Congress to quickly pass legislation that would permanently ban Chinese vehicles from the US market. The group, which represents Ford, GM, Stellantis, BMW Group, Honda, Hyundai, JLR, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and more, called to not only ban the sale and manufacture of Chinese connected vehicles, but also their import.
John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said: “Right now, Chinese automakers are dumping subsidised vehicles with connected software and hardware around the world.”
He added: “This hasn’t happened inside the US yet, but given the scale and urgency of this threat, we urge you to enact a Chinese vehicle software and hardware ban before adjourning this year and make this policy the law of the land.”
Bozzella said that a permanent ban would send “a clear and bipartisan message that China’s strategy to dominate global automotive manufacturing will be met with a national security policy response from the American government”.
