- Electric vehicles manufactured in China are currently subject to 100 percent tariffs in Canada.
- Last year, China hit key Canadian products, including canola oil, with 100 percent duties.
- The Premiers of Manitoba and Saskatchewan call for the tariffs to be dropped entirely.
China is not happy with the 100 percent tariffs that Canada slapped on its imports, including electric vehicles, in October last year. In a bid to convince the country to drop the tariffs, the nation says it will remove its own retaliatory tariffs on Canadian agriculture. However, the latter country’s head of automotive parts industry has warned against dropping the tariffs over fears that cheap EVs could be dumped on local shores.
When first instituting the tariffs, the Great North noted it would help to improve national security, while also protecting domestic manufacturing. It added that China had been unfairly subsidizing its EV industry. In response to these tariffs, the People’s Republic responded with tariffs on Canadian agriculture, including a 100 percent rate on canola oil and meat, as well as a 75.8 percent tariff on canola seed.
Read: Canada Might Let Chinese EVs In And The Reason Has Nothing To Do With Cars
According to the Chinese ambassador to Canada, Wang Di, the nation is eager to ditch the tariffs.
“If Canada removes the unilateral unjustified tariffs on Chinese products, China will also reciprocate accordingly,” he said, “and if the EV tariffs are removed, then China will also remove the tariffs on the relevant products of Canada.”
The Canadian government says it is conducting an informal review of its tariffs on Chinese EVs, CTV News reports. It adds that since the trade dispute started, exports from Saskatchewan dropped 76 percent in August from the year prior. Both the premiers of Manitoba and Saskatchewan have called for tariffs to be lowered to protect the local canola industries.
However, Canadian automotive parts industry boss Flavio Volpe has strongly opposed abandoning the tariffs on Chinese EVs.
“I am reminding (the premiers) publicly, that if Canada is in a trade war with a country, then the response has to be a Canadian response,” he told CTV. “These Chinese EVs are not made for profit, they are subsidized. We’re in the middle of a game, and the only thing that changed… was the Chinese ambassador said, ‘If you do this, we’ll give you that.’ And last time I checked, the Chinese ambassador was sent from Beijing, not from Ottawa.”
