The federal government is not considering dropping tariffs it imposed last year on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), steel and aluminum, despite Beijing’s retaliation and U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a trade war with Canada, according to the industry minister.
Ottawa imposed a 100 per cent import tax on Chinese EVs and a 25 per cent import tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum last October. Beijing retaliated over the weekend by imposing nearly $4 billion in tariffs on Canadian agricultural products, including canola oil and pork.
"We’re going to stand strong,” said Francois-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry, in an interview with Vassy Kapelos on CTV News Channel’s Power Play. “We want to protect our industry. We want to protect our workers. We want to protect our communities.”
The federal government, following the lead of then-U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, imposed a 100 per cent import tax on EVs produced in China in October of last year, accusing Beijing of “distorting global trade” by exporting EVs at “unfairly low prices.”
Ottawa also imposed a 25 per cent import tax on Chinese-made steel and aluminum last October, accusing China of “pervasive subsidization” of its steel and aluminum industry.
In the wake of Trump’s decision to launch a trade war with Canada and China’s decision to impose new tariffs on Canadian products, B.C. Premier David Eby urged the federal government to rethink its tariff policy with all countries, including China.
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Talks between Canada and China have been going on all the time, but China doesn’t appear to listen. The government in Beijing ordered Chinese companies to overproduce -EVs and other products- as they think this is the only way to support their troubled economy. They make decisions in complete disregard of anyone else. I don’t say tariffs or other protectionist measure are a good thing, but a free competitive market only works if everyone plays according to the rules. China doesn’t.
Repeating US complete BS absurdity at China is not talking.
By all means, protecting Canada’s auto sector should be plan A, just because so much of our economy is used to it, we sunk investment into it, and manufacturing is important industry, and disruption affects politics, which no matter how corrupt and dysfunctional, and based on all the lies you repeated, but is what it is. Preparing for plan B, should still start now. There is far more than EVs that we can gain from Chinese trade. Mostly selling more of our resources. But manufactured auto parts, is an area where our expertise could grow even higher, and completely outcompete US tarriffed competition. Crossborder shopping from US would allow us to have more retail stores/jobs, and pressure US economy more. Canadian Ag needs new customers now, and again, customers for us is US customers replaced.
Tolerating US propaganda on which countries are more evil than the US, and then fully cooperating with their demonism, makes losing this trade war a 100% certainty. We will only get political gaslighting of resistance as one of “the stages of grief” before we set our submission levels to absolute levels, in a Chuck Schumer moment.
World needs to join the delete America program immediately if it wants to survive. GM/Ford/Stelantis included, where Canada must convince them to keep full production here. Failure from them, must result in exterminating US vehicles from Canadian market. Seizing their (highly subsidized) assets.
Your comments are outright wrong. This is not hateful warmongering, I am offering simple facts. The 5% growth rate in China is most likely wrong. Even one of China’s leading economists recently claimed that growth rates in the country are more around 2% (he has since disappeared).
A lot of China’s EV manufacturers already went bankrupt or ceased production in recent years due to fierce price wars, but the country has still a huge overcapacity, and we see the same pattern in practically all other industries.
(To use your language: just look at the numbers instead of repeating the Chinese propaganda absurdity.)
They had 350 car manufacturers. Normal to have some of these be losers.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/williampesek/2025/01/17/is-chinas-gdp-growth-only-2-donald-trump-might-want-to-find-out/
This is propaganda heavy. Gemini says source of claim is western “Rhodium Group”. https://rhg.com/research/after-the-fall-chinas-economy-in-2025/
That report while still propaganda lets us see through the propaganda with their reasoning.
China has better economic statistics reporting than even US, and claim that they’ve always been lying is the best shit talk we can come up with.
Rhodium points to not being able to separate government investment/spending from consumer spending in data. Looking at Alibaba sales is distracting if car sales are up 4.5%. Massive Chinese investments in renewable energy deployments, and other infrastructure (military production) can explain the reported GDP growth. Still consistent with lower cement use (investments in non cement using infrastructure). Lower diesel use is the result of their EV success, and LNG conversions of trucking. Rhodium is still expecting 2025 to match CCP expectations.
US GDP includes 11% as “Owner’s equivalent rent”, a non economic imputation that is higher with higher interest rates. It also includes “underpaid health services” as a GDP addition/boost even though US healthcare is 5 basis% of GDP higher than Canada without that adjustment. Worrying about fake GDP from China is a a favorite loser pastime. But (constant) projections of imminent collapse there are overblown, while the highly contracting austerity measures needed in US to stabilize debt would be depressionary.
Thank you for that heads up to find the link. I can’t assure you that there is no reason to doubt Chinese economic numbers. I can assure you that they have the fiscal ammunition to push through any trade wars or other difficulties, that US does not. It is not a basis for going all in on US subserviences vs China cooperation.