Governor Gretchen Whitmer criticized tariffs and encouraged cooperation with trade partners during a Detroit Auto Show speech Thursday.
Whitmer argued federal tariffs and spending cuts have put Michigan manufacturing at a disadvantage as it competes with China’s car industry. She said to keep up, the U.S. needs to double down on working with its neighbors as a trade agreement with Canada and Mexico goes up for re-negotiation this summer.
“The American auto industry of 2025, let alone 2050, can’t exist on an island. To compete against our adversaries, we have to collaborate with our friends,” Whitmer said during the address.
But during a visit to Dearborn earlier this week President Donald Trump, who negotiated the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement during his first term in office, called it “irrelevant”.
Trump has made tariffs a central part of his economic platform. Since retaking office, he has imposed new tariffs on foreign cars, as well as the automobile parts and the materials that go into the vehicles made in the U.S.
Wednesday, Trump announced a new 25% tariff on some semiconductors used for AI.
Whitmer said she shares Trump’s goal of onshoring supply chains but that his tariffs lack strategy. Instead, she said, more stability is needed for Michigan manufacturing projects to take off.
“Not only is this a sledgehammer, it’s a swinging sledgehammer that you don’t know where it’s going to land from one day to the next. And I think that’s precisely the problem. We can’t have a policy that changes when we’re talking about manufacturing - that decisions that are made decades in advance. These are huge investments,” Whitmer told reporters after her speech.
Trump maintains his tariffs have brought more spending to Michigan, including from automakers Stellantis and Ford.
The address served as the welcome speech for the event’s Mobility Global Forum.
In the meantime Thursday, Whitmer announced a new directive to explore the use of naturally occurring hydrogen as a clean energy source. That includes creating a new initiative to coordinate research, workforce, and environmental strategy across state government.
Whitmer said it’s important to, “assess what’s possible.”
“When you look at the resources that we have under our feet here, it sets Michigan apart from everyone else. We’re all looking for clean, affordable energy and we may be right on the cusp of really changing the landscape here,” she said in the reporter scrum.
Workforce training and development made up another policy area Whitmer focused on. She called on state lawmakers to permanently expand the Michigan Reconnect tuition assistance program for adult learners to everyone age 21 and up. The program has been temporarily expanded to include 21-year-olds via the past few state budgets.
At a panel later in the day, state officials and other stakeholders discussed a new transition strategy to prepare the state’s economy for the future. The hope would be getting Michigan’s businesses and workforce ready in case any of the state’s bread and butter industries face a downturn.
The report, from the state Community & Worker Economic Transition Office, named three strategies to improve industry growth, community resiliency, and employee engagement. Recommendations included helping manufacturing suppliers get into new industries, scoring communities by their ability to manage deindustrialization, and supporting new worker training programs.
Jonathan Smith, with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, said a number of those things wouldn’t require too many resources, and that there should be political will behind the others.
“There’s a lot that we could start work on today,” Smith said. “One of the things I think that gives me hope about our ability to implement more of these recommendations in the future regardless of what happens in any future election is the strength of this coalition.”
