Ontario Premier Doug Ford has taken a strong stance against the deal recently struck between Ottawa and Beijing to allow back Chinese-made electric vehicles in Canada. He’s calling on Canadians to boycott them.
Ford believes the deal will harm Ontario’s auto sector.
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«Boycott the Chinese EV vehicles,» he said during a press conference in Toronto this week. «Support companies that are building vehicles here. It’s as simple as that.»
Canadians should support automakers that have a manufacturing presence in Canada, he added.
49,000 Chinese EVs Per Year
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping last week agreed on a raft of measures including reduced tariffs on Canadian canola products in exchange for the import of 49,000 Chinese EVs under new, preferential tariffs of 6.1 percent.
The number of EVs is raising many eyebrows across the Canadian auto industry. Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, who spoke alongside Ford, reminded that the intent behind the 100 percent tariffs was to give Canada’s EV investments a chance to succeed before letting in more Chinese vehicles.
«Fifty-thousand cars is about a shift at an auto plant, and a shift is 1,000 workers. It might be 5,000 supplier workers,” he said. “So the challenge now is, if they’re inside the gate, what are we going to do to bolster the capabilities of Canadian suppliers with hundreds of millions of dollars of capital at risk?”
Unifor national president Lana Payne also expressed her concerns.
«Given China’s massive, and I say massive, overcapacity in EV production, there is little reason for those companies to establish real and meaningful manufacturing operations in our country,» she said, adding that the core supply chain in China is supported by heavy state subsidies, very low wages and suspect labour conditions.
Cheaper Cars
Carney insists the deal is an opportunity for Ontario, claiming there is interest in Chinese companies producing «affordable» electric vehicles in Canada. But the industry laments that Ottawa has given market access without guarantees or any real commitments.
«We are in the fight of our lives here fending off Trump’s tariffs, and that fight just got a little harder,» Payne said.
