So a Chinese EV imported into the US via Canada would have a 6.1% + 25% = 31% total tariff?
That’s not too bad…
Imported cars into the US from Japan and the EU are tariffed at 15%, so given lower initial costs, Chinese-via-Canada cars should be competitive.
That’s not how it works, those tariffs are determined by country of production not the country of import. As far as I understand Chinese made EVs would still be tariffed at the 100% rate in the US.
I mean, at this point we don’t have an auto industry with the US to protect.
I’d rather we move everything domestic and just apply a tariff on Chinese goods to equalize labour+environment cost differences. It’s pretty reasonable and still forces our companies to compete on quality, and China on human rights.
maybe they’ll get pissy about it, but the current tariff is asinine and bad for everyone.
Canada can’t compete with Chinese manufacturing. Their labor costs are too low. The only way to “compete” domestically, would be to drop wages to below minimum.
This is exactly what strategic tariffs are for. China has every opportunity to bring in their EV’s…but the price tag is adjusted to match what Canada can produce locally. It prevents our own industries from having to run below cost just to compete with parts made in China.
China also invested heavily in automation, so they need far less labor than any manufacturer in North America
Which is actually detrimental to their own domestic labor situation. It would be insane for Canada to follow China’s lead. Automation is great, when it helps improve the lives of workers…but, it’s terrible if it makes sizeable chunks of your entire labor force obsolete.
On paper, who cares? Markets adjust. In reality, those people don’t just cease to exist once you’ve replaced them with robots. You either have to have a financial framework set up to provide for them, like UBI…or you’ll end up with an unemployment crisis on your hands.
I’m curious what a BYD base model EV would end up costing here. I’m not getting excited yet.
Huge - Canada moving further away from the American auto and agriculture industries
Maybe Canada will get all the affordable cars that the US misses out on. In Australia, there’s some good Chinese EVs from MG and BYD that are around the equivalent of US$20k including taxes.
Welp…there goes the Canadian automotive industry. First we lose the US market over tariffs, and now we outsource what’s left, to China.
