IP Law Daily, VITAL BRIEFING—GM recognizes $3.1 billion in 2025 tariff costs; profit-sharing to be cut, (Jan 30, 2026)
As hard as the tariffs hit General Motor’s 2025 financial results, its CFO indicated it could have been worse, as the company was able to avoid further expense by taking advantage of last year’s volatile and dynamic U.S. trade and tariff environment.
In this edition of Tariffs Insights, Thomas Thompson takes a deep dive on how the first year of the Trump administration’s tariff policies impacted the financial results for U.S. automaker General Motors and its labor force. Thompson also considers a report from a German think tank that conducted an analysis of who might be absorbing the brunt of the tariffs, as well as the factors that have led to the recent souring of U.S.–South Korea trade relations.
Some of Thompson’s notable observations in this installment also include:
While GM recognized over $3 billion in tariff expense, the company alone accounted for 11\2 percent of the total tariffs that U.S. Customs and Border Protection collected last year.
Tariffs took a toll on the 47,000 GM autoworkers eligible for profit-sharing, who will each be receiving about $10,500, down significantly from last year’s $14,500 payout.
The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank, found that foreign exporters absorbed only about 4 percent of the tariffs paid to the U.S. government in the first 11 months of 2025.
South Korea recently found itself facing new threats of 25 percent U.S. tariffs, up from the current 15 percent tariff level, which was agreed to in July of last year after intense negotiations.
To read the article, click GM recognizes $3.1 billion in 2025 tariff costs; profit-sharing to be cut.
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