U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One to travel to New York from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., May 23, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is weighing a plan that would impose new tariffs on imported vehicles on national security grounds, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The administration is considering starting a probe of imported cars under a legal provision known as Section 232, possibly applying tariffs at the end, the Journal reported, citing industry officials briefed on broad outlines of the plan.

The Trump administration is currently considering tariffs of up to 25 percent, the Journal said.

The plan remains in its early stages, and is likely to face significant opposition from a number of interest groups, from foreign trading partners to domestic dealers of imported cars, the newspaper added.

Trump has already imposed hefty import tariffs on steel and aluminum under Section 232 of the 1962 U.S. Trade Expansion Act, which allows safeguards based on “national security.”