Volvo Car’s only U.S. factory was supposed to bring 4,000 jobs to Ridgeville, S.C., 30 miles northwest of Charleston. Today half that number run a single daily shift building expensive electric vehicles.

The Wall Street Journal's John Keilman writes that is about to change thanks, in part, to the Trump administration’s tariffs. Starting next year the Swedish automaker will crank up production of its most popular SUV in America—the XC60—at this $1.3 billion plant in the South Carolina low country.

Six of the seven models that Volvo–under the majority ownership of China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding–sells in the U.S. are imported from Europe. That makes them subject to a 15% tariff that adds thousands of dollars to each vehicle’s cost. For years the XC60 was one of those imported models, but producing vehicles in South Carolina allows Volvo to avoid the new tariff that adds thousands of dollars to each vehicle’s cost.

And under the preliminary terms of the U.S. trade deal with the European Union, the company can also export vehicles back to Europe duty-free.

A new tariff on imported heavy-duty trucks–set to be introduced Wednesday–fixes an unintended consequence of other import duties introduced by the White House earlier this year: They rewarded manufacturers for making trucks in Mexico. The Journal’s Stephen Wilmot writes that, currently, U.S.-listed Paccar, which owns Kenworth and Peterbilt, assembles most trucks domestically and has to pay high duties on the parts it imports, including a 50% tariff on imported steel and aluminum.

Germany’s Daimler Trucks, the largest player in the U.S. heavy-duty truck market with a 41% share, can import parts at lower tariff rates to Mexico and then ship its trucks to the U.S. duty-free so long as they comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. A Bernstein analysis found that the tariff on imported components might add $5,000 to the cost of a $150,000 truck assembled in the U.S. relative to a USMCA-compliant one assembled in Mexico.

• The U.S. will honor the EU trade agreement capping pharmaceutical tariffs at 15%, and a deal with Japan that set Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs at 15% for the country, an administration official said. (WSJ)
• Amgen said it would invest $650 million in its U.S manufacturing network, the day after Trump’s announcement of a tariff on drug imports from companies not building U.S. plants. (WSJ)
• AstraZeneca said it would offer asthma and diabetes drugs at a discount of up to 70% in the U.S. ahead of a deadline for pharmaceutical companies to cut drug prices. (WSJ)

Walmart executives aren’t sugarcoating the message: Artificial intelligence will wipe out some jobs and reshape its workforce.

Now the country’s largest private employer is making plans to confront that reality, the Journal’s Sarah Nassauer and Chip Cutter write. Inside Walmart, top executives have started to examine AI’s implications for its workforce in nearly every high-level planning meeting. Company leaders say they are tracking which job types decrease, increase and stay steady to gauge where additional training and preparation can help workers.

Already Walmart has built chat bots, which it calls “agents,” for customers, suppliers and workers. It is also tracking an expanding share of its supply chain and product trends with AI. For now, executives say the transformation means the size of its global workforce will stay roughly flat even as its revenue climbs.

Consumer prices rose 0.3% in August from July, lifting personal-consumption expenditures, or PCE, inflation–the Fed’s preferred measure–to 2.7% over the past year, up from 2.6% a month earlier. (WSJ)

Consumer sentiment declined in September, with the University of Michigan’s index falling to 55.1 from 58.2 in August. (WSJ)

China’s industrial profit rose 20.4% from a year earlier in August, compared with a 1.5% drop in July, as Beijing curbs excess capacity and reins in business competition. (WSJ)

Canada’s gross domestic product grew a modest 0.2% in July from the month before, though advance data indicated activity stalled in August. (WSJ)

Tokyo’s core consumer inflation remained at 2.5% in September, matching August’s pace and falling below economists’ 2.8% expectation. (WSJ)

Federal regulators are scaling back obstacles for Boeing, allowing the company to regain limited authority for final safety checks on 737 MAX jets. (WSJ)

Chinese tech giant Baidu plans to launch fully driverless robotaxis in Dubai, aiming for public commercialization by the first quarter of next year. (WSJ)

Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine plans to expand its Latin America and Middle East services over the next five years as container growth shifts away from the U.S. (Journal of Commerce)

South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries said a containership it built for Evergreen completed a trans-Pacific voyage using AI navigation without crew intervention. (Digital Ship)

At least two Chinese banks are in talks with the financial regulator about converting shipping leases into mortgages as a safeguard against U.S. fees on Chinese ships. (Bloomberg)

A federal judge rejected drone maker DJI’s attempt to have itself pulled off the Pentagon’s list of companies allegedly working with the Chinese military. (Reuters)

The Department of Transportation is tightening rules for noncitizens to get commercial drivers’ licenses after three fatal crashes. (Associated Press)

Mark R. Long is editor of WSJ Logistics Report. Reach him at mark.long@wsj.com.

Follow the WSJ Logistics Report team on LinkedIn: Mark R. Long, Liz Young and Paul Berger.