In Halifax on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland announced new measures aimed at protecting Canada’s auto, steel, and aluminum industries from competition with Chinese imports.
The federal government plans to impose a 100% surtax on Chinese-made electric vehicles, effective October 1, 2024. This surtax will be on top of the current 6.1% import tariff.
Beyond the duties on Chinese-made EVs, a 25% tariff will be applied to imports of Chinese steel and aluminum products starting October 15, 2024.
“I think we all know that China is not playing by the same rules,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters. “What is important about this is we’re doing it in alignment and in parallel with other economies around the world,” he added.
Canada is following in the footsteps of the US and the European Union. China is the biggest EV market and there are a multitude of choices, including affordable options from the likes of BYD, Nio, Li Auto and more. But these won’t be hitting Western markets anytime soon.
The feds say these measures will protect Canadian jobs and industry from China’s trade practices. The government also plans to limit eligibility for certain zero-emission vehicle incentives to products made in countries with free trade agreements with Canada.
As it stands, only Tesla imports vehicles from China made at its Gigafactory in Shanghai. A government official confirmed to Reuters that Tesla would be impacted by the new 100% tariff measures.
Tesla manufactures its Model 3 and Model Y at Giga Shanghai for both domestic and international export, including to countries such as Canada. Tesla owners have long applauded vehicles made in China as better quality than those coming from the company’s factory in Fremont, California.
Tesla will likely start sending Canada vehicles made in the US, which at one point were reserved for the American market to let buyers qualify for up to $7,500 US in tax credits. Expect a possible shift in delivery timelines for Model 3 and Model Y vehicles if you have one ordered.
The feds also noted consultation on further tariffs in other critical sectors, such as batteries and semiconductors, will be launched shortly. All measures will be reviewed after one year and may be extended or expanded as needed.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
What Canadian jobs and industry are saved under this tax?
Somebody has to pay for the billions on the VW EV plant..lol
We're just copying our American masters. Same reason Canada does anything that it does.
Just Ontario ones… plus all Canadians get to benefit from reduced market pressures from increased price competition for EVs.
AKA, cars will remain overpriced here, which the government will continue offsetting with bandaid rebates, which have to actually be paid for in taxes, further reducing the amount of money you actually have to pay for these expensive cars.
Again… instead of allowing free market to prevail and forcing North American automotive factories to make cheaper cars.
forcing North American automotive factories to make cheaper cars
——
How, by dumping on human rights and incorporate slave labor for mines, ignoring environmental protection laws and encourage data theft?
https://media4.giphy.com/media/9Vb9gWFgb9a4zUXDSW/giphy-downsized-small.mp4
I’m not sure what will be protected by these measures – except for the US interests – and how Canadians will benefit from them; but after China start retaliating with their own tariffs, many Canadians who work in the agricultural industry will pay the price.
Who would you rather upset, our largest trading partner that protects our borders or a Communistic regime that is actively pursuing global dominance in the EV industry (as well as others but I digress).
It is not about upsetting anyone, international politics are not high school. It’s about the interests and I believe every country should first and foremost protect their own and not the ones of the other countries no matter how big or powerful those countries are. Except some ancillary companies, Canada doesn’t have any car industry of their own and therefore nothing to protect. Only a few factories of the American companies. Europe on the other hand, has multiple times more car companies/brands than US, yet they decided not to pursue the tariffs against China because in the long run it would be better for their business.
US doesn’t protect anything other than their own interests; or anyone, including Canada. Should I mention their softwood lumber dispute with Canada that doesn’t seem to go away for decades? Or the dairy dispute because they want to export even more of their dairy products to Canada, which are btw, unlike Canadian dairy not free from antibiotics and/or growth hormones they are doping their cows with. Clearly protecting their own interests at the expense of Canadian interests.
If the US is protecting our border, we might as well disband our military and security forces and send them home to enjoy the peaceful life. Canada can protect their borders just fine. They can help and we can cooperate but without any patronizing from the mighty US. I don’t care if the Chinese get upset by the tariffs, I care that countless Canadian whose livelihood depends on canola, soy, pork, lobster etc. that they produce and export to China will face financial ruin.
Canadian farmers exported $5 Billion worth of canola to China last year. Chinese came out today announcing they will initiate measures that will affect that export. But hey, Tesla may open a factory in Canada at some undetermined point in the future.
Search for "Tesla Toronto automation" and "Tesla battery equipment manufacturing in Canada". The tariff increase may help spur more Tesla manufacturing plants in Canada.
“May help spur…” May. Whereas Chinese economic retaliation will guaranteed make considerable damage in many people’s lives. So we should throw under a bus hundreds and hundreds hard working people for a chance that Tesla – an American company – may or may not open a car or a battery plant in Canada?
Opening plants anywhere except China helps. China never buys more than it sells to us. There is no "free money". That's why the debt keeps climbing in western world as they think it's cheap but it's not. It's just adding to our debt and we keep printing more money to make up for it. No one knows how long the debt can keep climbing like this. Fixing the problem at it's source by encouraging diversification of supply chains will tend to address the root of the problem, i.e., put us in better position to negotiate more fair trade deals. Trying to deal with a supply chain monopolist is not a great strategy to continue to follow. The strategy of kicking the can down the road may work until one day the can hits a land mine.
You won’t hear argument from me against the need for the entire world to wean off the China’s cheap goods but that goes straight to the issue of corporate greed to maximize their profits. The West moved almost its entire industrial production to China because they can make the goods cheaper and still sell them at the western prices. There’s not enough profit if they keep the production at home and God forbid pay the fair wages to the domestic workers and by that break our economic dependence on China. But you have to pick your battles. And certainly not pick the ones in which your own people will end up with a short end of the stick
The battle to try and diversify EV supply chain is important to pick now, not 5 or 10 years from now after the Chinese become even more entrenched in the sector. It’s not easy but also not hard if you do bit by bit. Like how Apple is starting to move 25% of iPhones to India and some percentage of Macbooks to Vietnam. China did not build their supply chains within a couple of years. They did over a couple of decades. Starting to “friend shore” some manufacturing can lay the groundwork needed to secure more balanced trade deals, slow down, and possibly even reverse trade deficit growth, and keep money printing and inflation down to a dull roar. Root causes of the fiscal deficit problems have to be addressed now, especially nascent fields like AI chips and EV’s. EV software security is another issue that may be concerning western governments as well. EV’s most definitely need to be encouraged to keep their manufacturing diversified, if not done here, then at least friend shored so we can secure more balanced trade deals as these countries compete for contracts.
Canada became another Puppet State of America.
There is no Canadian EV market to protect, while US car companies are pulling back on building them and companies like VW are reconsidering the need for battery plants. Speaking of which, our government really wants to use the excuse of Chinese subsidies as to one of the reasons these EVs are being penalized? We want to talk about the Canadian government monies (federally and provincially) that have gone into the car and oil companies?
Lobbyists and pressures from foreign governments – not common sense – has gone into this decision.
It's too bad for the inevitable cost of everything, but on the flip side, a majority of Chinese manufacturers violate copyrights and blatantly copy other people's designs so at least there's that.
So let's see – EVs are so important for environmental reasons that the government subsidizes purchases and Canadians are suffering from sticker shock on basics like food and housing – so the government doubles the cost of the most affordable EVs? I guess the environment wasn't THAT important after all lol. And helping poor Canadians afford a car? Nope! Unbelievable.