Canada To Impose 100% Tariff On Chinese-Made EVs

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC.ca: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday Canada will impose punitive tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles — copying a similar initiative that the U.S. is already pursuing to stop a flood of what’s been described as unfairly state-subsidized cars. Trudeau made the announcement at the federal cabinet retreat in Halifax where ministers are meeting to craft a strategy for the year ahead — the last year before an expected federal election in October 2025. Amid industry pressure to copy the U.S. program, Trudeau said a 100 percent surtax will be levied on all Chinese-made EVs, effective Oct. 1. The tariff would effectively double the price of imported vehicles, as it is expected most of the tax would be passed on to consumers.

Ottawa is following through now, Trudeau said, to “level the playing field for Canadian workers” and allow Canada’s nascent EV industry to compete at home, in North America and globally. The tariff will apply to electric and certain hybrid passenger automobiles, trucks, buses and delivery vans. Chinese brands like BYD are not a major player in Canada’s EV market right now but imports from China have exploded in recent years as Tesla switched from U.S. factories for its Canadian sales to its manufacturing plant in Shanghai. The new tariff will apply to those Shanghai-made Teslas that are sold in Canada — a development that is expected to force the U.S. automaker to supply the Canadian market with vehicles made at one if its other plants in the U.S. or Europe instead. “Unfortunately, Canada made a decision today that will result in fewer affordable electric vehicles for Canadians, less competition and more climate pollution,” said Joanna Kyriazis, director of public affairs at Clean Energy Canada. “Not only could today’s announcement have a chilling effect on future EV sales, it could drive up EV prices and slow adoption in the near-term as well,” Kyriazis said.

Flavio Volpe, the president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association who lobbied Ottawa to follow through with matching the U.S. tariffs, responded: “Sure, what the Chinese are doing is selling us green products that help fulfill some of our EV mandates, but they do it in a regulatory environment where they forgo any stewardship of the environment,” he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland added that the Chinese industry is “built on abysmal labour standards and it is built on abysmal environmental standards.”