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Ontario Premier Doug Ford is rejecting calls from his counterparts in Saskatchewan and Manitoba to drop tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) in exchange for canola tariff relief, saying he, too, must protect his province’s key industries by advocating to maintain the levies.
Ford made the comments on Oct. 14 while
addressing the Empire Club of Canada, a Canadian speakers forum in Toronto. His remarks come three days after Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew separately urged Ottawa to drop its 100 percent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, following a
suggestion from China’s ambassador to Canada that doing so could lead Beijing to lift its tariffs on Canadian canola.
“I had a conversation the other day, Scott called me up and said, ‘Hey, I gotta protect my farmers,’” Ford said.
“I get it. I get why Wab Kinew and Scott are saying ‘drop the tariffs,’ but I have to do the same thing,” he added. “So I respect what they’re doing, but there’s no damn way we should drop tariffs on China, I'll tell you that. Absolutely not.”
Canada last year
imposed 100 percent tariffs on Chinese-made EVs and 25 percent tariffs on aluminum and steel products,
citing “unfair” competition from Chinese producers who Ottawa says “benefit from China’s intentional, state-directed policy of overcapacity and oversupply.” The move aligned Canada with the United States, which had imposed similar duties months earlier.
In a move widely seen as retaliation, China in March
imposed 100 percent tariffs on Canadian canola oil, oil cakes, and pea imports, as well as 25 percent tariffs on aquatic and pork products, at a time when Canada was grappling with shifting U.S. tariffs. Beijing said levies stemmed from a domestic “anti-discrimination” investigation it had initiated last year.
Then, weeks after Ottawa in July
announced additional tariffs on steel from China with the aim of protecting the domestic industry from trade diversion, Beijing imposed 75.8 percent tariffs on Canadian canola, the result of an “anti-dumping”
investigation the regime had launched last September.
Canadian canola is primarily grown in the Prairie provinces, and China is the second largest market
after the United States. Total exports of canola products to China last year were nearly $5 billion.
Both Moe and
Kinew have called on Ottawa to seek the removal of China’s canola tariffs, saying they disproportionately affect Western industries and were a response to federal measures aimed at protecting the EV sector, which is primarily based in Eastern Canada.
Ford last month
urged Ottawa to maintain its EV tariffs, saying the automotive industry, already impacted by U.S. tariffs, needs protection from what he calls China’s non-market practices.
“As you know, China’s pervasive use of non-market policies and practices, including heavy subsidization and low environmental and labour standards, gives its industry unfair advantages over Canadian automotive manufacturers,” Ford wrote in a Sept. 17
letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“Maintaining Canada’s 100 per cent tariff on Chinese-made EVs is essential to levelling the playing field, giving Canada’s EV sector and EV battery supply chains the ability to lead the North American EV sector and compete in the global EV market.”
China’s ambassador to Canada
said in an interview with CTV aired on Oct. 12 that China’s tariffs on Canadian agricultural products were a countermeasure against EV tariffs and levies Ottawa imposed on Chinese steel and aluminum.
“If Canada removes the unilateral, unjustified tariffs on Chinese products, China will also reciprocate accordingly,” Wang Di said. “And if the EV tariffs are removed, then China will also remove the tariffs on the relevant products of Canada.”
In response to Wang’s remarks, published in an
article a day before the interview aired, Moe said Ottawa should accept China’s proposal.
“This is a clear signal of how Ottawa can act this week,” Moe said in an Oct. 11 social media
post. “It’s time for Ottawa to get this deal done on behalf of 200K Canadian workers.”
Moe last month led a Canadian trade
delegation to China to discuss canola tariffs and other trade issues. Before the trip, he
said he wanted Ottawa to lift its tariffs on Chinese EVs, but following the visit, he
softened his stance, noting that the issue was “not as simple as that,” given the challenge of balancing trade relations with both Beijing and Washington.
Kinew had a similar response to Wang’s remarks, urging Carney in an Oct. 11
letter to “seize the opportunity.”
“Canada’s trade policy must balance long term industrial goals and national security with immediate economic realities as well as the national responsibility to grow every region of Canada’s economy,” Kinew wrote. “While protecting our automotive sector is important, the current approach has created a two-front trade war that disproportionately impacts Western Canada.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has previously
said that China’s targeted tariffs are part of a strategy meant to divide the country for the benefit of Beijing.
“This is how strategic China has been,” she said during a March fundraising
event in Edmonton. “China is responding to the fact that we matched the tax on electric vehicles 100 percent by not taxing electric vehicles, but by taxing food.
“So they know that they’re pitting one region of our country against the other.”
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Udumbara
