ISTANBUL

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would impose a 25% tariff on imported heavy trucks from Oct. 1 to protect manufacturers from "unfair outside competition."

"In order to protect our Great Heavy Truck Manufacturers from unfair outside competition, I will be imposing, as of October 1st, 2025, a 25% Tariff on all 'Heavy (Big!) Trucks' made in other parts of the World," Trump wrote on US social media company Truth Social, which he owns.

"Therefore, our Great Large Truck Company Manufacturers, such as Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks, and others, will be protected from the onslaught of outside interruptions," he added.

He also threatened to impose a series of tariffs on some products, including 100% on "any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product," 50% on kitchen cabinets and 30% on upholstered furniture.

The move is in response to the massive “FLOODING” of those products into the US from other countries, he added, stressing the need to protect US manufacturers from the "unfair practice."

According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the monthly shipping value of heavy-duty truck shipments more than quadrupled to $3.2 billion in July of this year from a multiyear low of about $1.1 billion in April 2020, indicating a recent recovery in US output.

Mexico was the top supplier of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles to the US last year, followed by Canada, Japan, Germany, and Türkiye, according to the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration.