Written by Collins Eshiet | Edited by Cláudio Afonso
Following the footsteps of the United States, Canada is preparing to impose tariffs on electric vehicles manufactured in China. Just like the US, Canada will impose a 100% tariff on all China-made EVs, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday.
Last May, the U.S. increased the tariffs from 25% to 100% while the European Commission also raised up to 36% aiming to tackle the “unfair benefits” from Chinese manufacturers. The tariffs in the Canada are effective from the first day of October.
According to Justin Trudeau, “Actors like China have chosen to give themselves an unfair advantage in the global marketplace” by enabling local EV firms to gain the upper hand in the global EV space. This is done by the provision of various EV subsidies that the Chinese government gives to local EV manufacturers, helping them sell their products at a cheap rate.
These subsidies tend to make the production process of EVs in China cheaper than it is in other regions around the world. Thanks to this move, Chinese EVs tend to be much cheaper than rival options offered by the competition in other regions.
Both the US and its ally Canada view this as an unfair business practice and aim to tackle it with massive import tariffs on Chinese EV brands.
Justin Trudeau’s government is now hitting Chinese EV brands with a 100% import tariff, eyeing to limit the expansion plans from major China players such as BYD which is several countries from the South American market.
The U.S.-listed stocks from Chinese EV makers registered sharp declines early last week following the adjustment from the European Commission on the incremental tariffs for imported EVs.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
