The Japanese government yesterday defended Toyota Motor Corp as an “important corporate citizen” of the United States, after President-elect Donald Trump singled out the automaker and threatened to slap punitive tariffs on its Mexico-built cars.

Trump has repeatedly hit out at US companies for using lower-cost factories abroad at the expense of jobs at home. He has slammed US automakers, including Ford which this week scrapped a planned $1.6 billion Mexico plant.

But the attack overnight on Toyota is his first against a foreign automaker. “Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for US. NO WAY! Build plant in US or pay big border tax,” Trump tweeted.

Toyota shares fell more than three per cent before recovering, and Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co slid around two per cent – even as the government and analysts sought to brush off the impact of the attack.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters yester-day that Toyota was an “important corporate citizen”, while Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko stressed the contribution of Japanese companies to US employment.

Toyota’s exposure to Mexico was limited, Kishimoto said, adding that even an “extreme case” tariff of 20 per cent would hit its operating profit by around six per cent. Trump has threatened a 35 per cent tariff on cars imported from Mexico.

Toyota is just one of a host of companies operating in Mexico. It has an assembly plant in Baja California, where it produces the Tacoma pick-up truck, and where it could increase production.

Trump’s tweet, however, confused Toyota’s existing Baja plant with the planned $1 billion plant in Guanajuato, where construction got under way in November.

The Guanajuato plant will build Corollas and have an annual capacity of 200,000 when it comes online in 2019, shifting production of the small car from Canada.

Baja produces around 100,000 pick-up trucks and truck beds annually.

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