Kickstart: Playing politics with businesses

It's probably too early to say just how many of President-elect Donald Trump's proposals will actually be put into policy, but businesses are already preparing to make adjustments just in case they do become reality.

Honda Motor Co. executives said at the CES trade show in Las Vegas this week that they are concerned about a planned $11 billion electric vehicle assembly plant in Ontario. The massive project was first announced in the spring of 2024. The plans also include Asahi Kasei Battery Separator Corp., a $1.1 billion joint venture by materials company Asahi Kasei Corp. and Honda in Port Colbourne, Ontario. The companies broke ground for the separator plant Nov. 14, 2024.

Since the election, Trump has proposed tariffs on Canada-made goods, including cars, while also boasting about making Canada the 51st state via "economic force," as he said at a Jan. 7 news conference.

"Because of Trump's initiatives, we might be very careful how we would start production of upcoming electric models," Honda Executive Vice President Noriya Kaihara said at CES, Reuters reported. "Maybe we might have to delay our start of the production of the EV models somehow."

Trump's policy will affect everyone, not just car buyers in a single country, said Flavio Volpe, the head of the Canadian auto parts group the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association.

"This is much, much bigger than a toolmaker in Windsor or a blow molded plastic supplier in Markham," Volpe told The Canadian Press.

Meanwhile, The New York Times writes that Trump's desire to take over Greenland — again through the threat of high tariffs, although in his Jan. 7 news conference he would not rule out military force — could interrupt the supply of popular weight loss drugs, hearing aids and Lego bricks.

Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark, and neither Denmark nor Greenland favor the acquisition. Denmark also is the home to pharmaceutical maker Novo Nordisk, which exports Ozempic and Wegovy to the U.S. from Denmark, although manufacturing of the drug and delivery systems in the U.S. for it has been ramping up. Denmark also is a leading exporter of hearing aids to the U.S.

And while Lego A/S is in the process of building a $1 billion molding plant near Richmond, Va., to make its plastic bricks in the U.S., it also relies on imports from Mexico, Europe and Asia, The Times writes.

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