U.S. President Donald Trump is granting a one-month exemption on his stiff new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada for U.S. automakers, as worries persist that the newly launched trade war could crush domestic manufacturing.

The pause comes after Trump spoke with leaders of the “big 3” automakers, Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, on Wednesday (March 5), according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Mike Hicks is the longtime director of sales at DMS Components, a Canadian-based company that he calls the 'Home Depot' of molding and die casting, He considers Trump's 25 percent tariff on all Canadian goods an economic attack that even hurts many people who were happy to see him return to the White House.

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"We were applauding when he got in as far as the direction for the auto industry, so, we do feel betrayed," said Hicks.

Hicks says a large amount of DMS' sales come from U.S. customers, and the uncertainty surrounding tariffs has left their small staff of 15 getting a lot of questions they can't answer.

"We don't know what to tell customers right now when they phone us, 'What's my price going to be? Is it $10? $10 plus a 25% tariff?," said Hicks. "No one knows how to price anything and of course, customers are not willing to pay an extra 25% for our products."

In 2023, the U.S. imported $11.7 billion in auto parts from Canada, according to research from the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

With yet another month-long exemption underway, Hicks hopes to eventually see some stability.

"In my mind, the uncertainty of tariffs are just almost as bad as the tariffs themselves," said Hicks. "Our livelihoods depend on it."

(Produced by Eric Cox)