Canada’s auto manufacturing industry employs over 125,000 people. Ottawa has poured billions of dollars into supporting its transition to EVs and firming up a domestic electric battery supply line.
At a news conference in Halifax on Canada’s Atlantic coast, Trudeau said Chinese EV overproduction and hefty state subsidies for its auto sector “requires us to take action”.
“Unless we want to get in a race to the bottom, we have to stand up, and that’s what we’re doing,” he said. In a statement, the government called the tariffs a response to “this extraordinary threat”.
The EV surtax, on top of existing import duties of 6.1 per cent, will be imposed starting Oct 1 on Chinese electric and certain hybrid passenger automobiles, trucks, buses and delivery vans.
Additionally, Ottawa will limit eligibility for EV incentives to those made in countries with which Canada has free trade deals, which would exclude China.
Its surtax on imports of steel and aluminum products from China will be effective Oct 15.
