Should Canada ease its 100% tariff on electric vehicles from China amid trade war with U.S.?
Some economists support the move, while automakers worry about flooding market
It is time for Canada to stop blocking affordable EVs, and the most affordable are Chinese EVs. As long as Canada's transportation infrastructure forces dependence on personal vehicles (except in major urban centers) alternatives to burning fossil fuels must be encouraged, not blocked.
Canada only put the tariff on to please the US. That ship has sailed. Canada doesn’t have an auto industry independent of the US. The US is trying to take that whole pie. Canadians still need cars and Canadian autoworkers need more reliable OEMs. Canada should get rid of the tariff on Chinese cars and focus on bringing non US based manufacturers into Canada. Preferably South Korean, Japanese and German, but buying some Chinese goodwill and hopefully improving diplomacy with them wouldn’t hurt.
You don't bring foreign manufacturing here by removing the tariffs. You keep the tariff (adjusted) to incentivize local production, and if needed subsidize them building a factory here. Then adjust the tariff to make the imports more expensive than the local production.
The enemy of my enemy is not my friend.
No, because these cheap EVs from China are essentially cheap because of slave-like forced labour.
And Canada will still have to dispose of them at the end of their working lifespan.
I'll take all the battery packs you want to drop off with me. LiFePO4 batteries will still have 80% SOC left after 5-6000 charges.
One Canadian startup is working on resource recovery and recycling.
Once an EV battery is no longer optimal for use in a vehicle, it doesn't become useless. Much like "disposable" vapes, the batteries are still very much useful. If not for repurposing, then for resource recovery.
Is there a long way, and a lot of funding needed, for reuse/recycling of Lithium batteries? Fuckin rights. This isn't just an EV issue though. Our modern life is largely powered by Lithium batteries, and we need to step up our game, globally, with reuse and recycling.
I have issues with it, they just executed Canadian citizens for “drug offences.” In all reality it is because of the trade issues we have with them.
But I do recognize that we are only tariffing them because the US wanted us to.
As far as I read our officials had problems with the punishment, not the crimes.
They were dual-cirizens. If they're Chinese citizens and according to China's legal system they had to go, how would it look in China if they don't apply the rules because they were also Canadian citizens?
Flip it around, some Canadian citizens commit crimes that call for life in prison in Canada. Would we expect our courts to not sentence them because they also hold Chinese or some other citizenship?
I did not know that they were dual citizens, that changes my out look.
I think we should stop doing business with all hostile states regardless of what they have to offer.
I agree, making a Faustian bargain with one evil authoritarian regime because we're afraid of the prices of the evil authoritarian regime on our border is just trading one problem for another problem. Both these countries are happy to destroy our economy, destroy the environment we live in, destroy their own people, and to destroy us if they can get away with it.
EVs are going to be expensive if they are made responsibly by people who are paid fairly. Life is going to be expensive. This is the cost of living responsibly on this planet and having a future for ourselves and our children, and it is not negotiable and cannot be dodged, hidden, offset, or rejected. Deal with it. Be prepared to change your way of life. We will manage. We are tough, resilient people, and we will lead the way into a future that, while it might not be the utopian ideal we wished it to be, will perhaps at least be a future where we can continue to breathe air and not wildfire smoke.
We should build electric cars here under the European brands.
But the European brands are switching (some models) to Chinese platforms from their Chinese partnerships. 🥹
If we get BYD (or equivalent) factories here, we're cutting the middle man. Staffing them with union workers along with Canadian environmental and labor regulation should ensure they aren't poisonous slave shops.
Let’s be honest if they sold a quality ev here cheaply I’d be all for it.
I think we should diversify away from the US and China as much as possible. So no, i don't think we should ease off tariffs on Chinese goods.
Just as a big fuck you to Musk's Tesla and the traitor-in-chief, we should absolutely decrease this nonsensical, 100%, never seen before, extraordinary tariff. First let's cut it to 50% and let's see how many Chinese cars enters Canada's market ... if it's a flood, we should increase the tariff again. ... if it's only a trickle, let's decrease the tariff again.
Remember we also want China to decrease their tariffs on Canadian products.
China is nobody's friend. They are an advanced authoritarian autocracy with significant territorial ambitions on this planet and in space. We made the mistake of relatively freely trading with them for decades, which helped destroy our manufacturing base while providing them funds to buy significant parts of our country in return, while they supported terrorist regimes like North Korea and bullied all their other neighbors in Asia. They are not friends, no matter how much they smile at us.
i mostly agree with you here.
Astonishingly, we might have to ask ourselves which regime, in China or USA, will be worst in the next few years.
China recently retaliated to the long standing tariffs we placed on their EVs.
I think there are a lot of potential issues regarding privacy and security and Chinese EVs.
A tariff is not a solution to those problems. Having privacy and security mandates FOR EVERYONE to follow would be a good thing.
The concern is there. Canada should let Chinese vehicles in, but should also mandate security and privacy focused specs. China should be willing to compromise to play ball in North America. There’s a path towards improved relations if both sides want it.