(March 11): Volkswagen AG’s US investments should count for something if US President Donald Trump decides to impose additional tariffs, the company’s finance chief said.

The German automaker is operating a large factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and sustaining more than 20,000 “safe and well-paid jobs” in the US, chief financial officer Arno Antlitz said on Tuesday. Volkswagen’s Scout truck and sport utility vehicle brand is building a new factory in South Carolina.

“We think these should be taken into account when talking about tariffs,” Antlitz said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “We feel already like an American company.”

Volkswagen could use sales growth in the lucrative US market to offset declining market share in China, where local manufacturers are taking over. Its Porsche brand is especially vulnerable to the tariff threats Trump is lobbing at the European Union. The US is the sports car maker’s biggest market, but its dealers there are dependent on imports.

Volkswagen has invested more than US$4.3 billion (RM19.0 billion) in the Chattanooga plant, which the company built to reduce the effects of currency fluctuations that frequently dragged on earnings. Its looking to Scout to offer the pickup trucks it currently doesn’t have in its line-up.

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