The Front Bench on possible tariffs on Chinese-made EVs | Power Play with Mike Le Couteur

ago US Government announced it would increase existing tariffs on Chinese EVS from 25% to 100% right now Canada imposes a 6% tariff on those types of cars when they come into our country however the government also offers a $5,000 rebate on every purchase of an electric vehicle so should Canada hike the Tariff to protect Canadian jobs let’s ask the front bench CTV News political analyst and former NDP leader Tom mare CTV News analyst and former Toronto mayor John Tori and glob and male parliamentary reporter Christy kirup welcome to you all Tom start with you on this one it’s not a simple ask of the federal government but when you consider the relationship that Canada has with China right now is it more difficult than some may think I agree with the first part of your question it’s not as easily said as H you know by Trudeau oh yeah we’ll just slap 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles as it is by Doug Ford who’s playing to his political base saying all you got do is slap a 100% tariff and Trudeau is quite right it is much more complicated than that you have to show harm you have to show that they’ve been dumping you have to show government involvement intentional intervention by the Chinese government to lower those prices to swamp the market to kill the Canadian jobs and that we’ve been trying to invest in so yes it’s a it’s a tougher road too but it doesn’t mean that Trudeau shouldn’t be acting because I think that the evidence is there and the Americans play by the rules generally in international trade deals and for them to have been boosting this into going after the Chinese vehic they’ve got enough evidence we should dovetail on that put ourselves in lock step with the Americans we in lock step with them in the car market in North America since the 60s with the autoa and we’ve got to continue we’re investing heavily to have our part of that market and I don’t think that it’s that difficult to prove that the Chinese are not playing fair but it’s not as simple as Doug Ford would have it simply declaring a 100% tariff yeah and John especially as Tom said our Auto sector is so interconnected are you at all shocked that Canada hasn’t moved sooner because know that the US has done this already no I’m not because you do have to do your homework as Tom said but as Tom also said I mean these industries the Auto industry in the two countries are to so totally integrated and intertwined that we’re really left with not much choice but the Prime Minister has to be careful sometimes they have acted very quickly on saying yes we’re going to do something like that and live to regret that later but look even the Tariff though we shouldn’t pretend is going to render our offering in the electric vehicle Marketplace uh you know as competitive as it needs to be uh the 100% tariff will still bring our price uh you know bring the price of their vehicle up but will not uh close the gap entirely so Chinese vehicles to the extent they’re imported here will still be uh cheaper and and people are suffering from an affordability crisis but still want to do the right thing for the environment so we’ve got a problem and we have another challenge of one or two things we have to do as well which is improve our charging infrastructure they have way better charging infrastructure uh in China and that’s going to lead them to have more success at home with their electric vehicles and secondly we have to uh fix our performance with regard to mining we have the critical minerals needed for batteries and other things in electric vehicles but we’ve moved very slowly and the Chinese have the advantage of an integrated process with the minerals they also have and we’ve got we’ve got to get going on that too yeah chrisy talk a little bit about that because John mentioning that look yeah we can do this but Canada’s EV electrical electric vehicle industry isn’t quite where China’s is right now and I put that to Vic fideli saying look your government was the one that took away the rebate in Ontario so wouldn’t you want to try and make it more competitive against the Chinese uh the price of a Chinese EV by also offering that he didn’t seem open to that yeah I think certainly at the end of the day Canada is really trying to beef up its presence in terms of electric vehicles and the politics of uh the Ontario Premier coming out today is really about the fact that you know he’s worried about uh jobs specifically in Ontario and how that’s going to impact U manufact here in Canada so there you know I think the political pressure as well um because of the fact that the US has taken the position that it has it applies greater position uh greater pressure rather on Canada uh but at the end of the day um you know we are bringing in a lot of vehicles from outside of Canada electric vehicles we are trying to build up our bandwidth but we’re we’re just not there yet in terms of that manufacturing um you know bandwidth and Canada is trying to improve in that regard yeah and it’s interesting Tom because I put it to Vic fideli I said your government has really gone all in on this but at the same time there are some stats out there showing that General Motors and other manufacturers are actually slowing down the manufacturing of electric vehicles is that not something that both levels of government need to be concerned about absolutely uh you know Quebec is part of the the attempt by Canada to get into the battery market and we’ve got a couple of big plants in Quebec you’ve got some huge ones in Ontario that are coming in uh but one of them by Ford in an area that’s basically on the South Shore of the St Lawrence halfway between Quebec City in Montreal they’ve simply pulled out they had started building it and they’ve pulled out so yeah there there is that no question that was Ford you’re talking about GM but some of these large American companies are saying gasoline engines are going to be all around for a lot longer than the government seem to believe we saw Richie sunac pull back from the Mandate that had been put in place in Great Britain to have all electric vehicles much faster he slowed down is this an attempt by the Auto industry to to keep the same old same old are we really going to be able to go through this transition and reduce our greenhouse gases as we see every day the proof of global warming and climate change around us are we going to somehow abandon that fight because the market is dictating to these companies what choices they should be making they think maybe they can get governments as the UK government did to back down these are the big questions and it’s worth pointing out yes that Ontario when they removed that government subsidy that was there that was essential just giving back the sales tax not much more than that but it really helped get people to buy I benefited from that because in Quebec all of a sudden the Teslas that were flowing back in from Ontario they were putting without even advertising them they were putting in uh showroom rebates which was never something that existed before for Teslas simply because there were that many cars coming back in from Ontario so I think that Ontario has a lot to to offer has a lot of ability to get its clean electricity to the extent that it’s not produced by fossil fuels and and I think that they should be moving along if if they’re going to have this massive investment in electric vehicles the least they can do is encourage people to be able to buy them John is there a concern that Canada and Ontario won’t and Quebec to an extent for what they’ve invested as well that they won’t get their return on investment sure I mean and and you know when you do these things it’s a vet there are people as you know who argue because it’s a vet that you shouldn’t make those bets at least government shouldn’t but back on the subject of the marketplace and people buying these cars these people that run auto companies you can be critical them for this or that but they’re pretty smart of what they do and they’re in business to make money so that when they slow down the process I don’t think I don’t think it’s them clinging to the combustion engine I think it’s them knowing what my friends say when I talk to them and my colleagues which is a lot of people are not ready to step up and buy these yet because they’re concerned about charging infrastructure they’re concerned about winter and the batteries they’re concerned about how long distance that you can travel in this very broad country of our so I just think we have to keep working at those things keep working at getting our price down you know at the European are doing that the Europeans are you know working at this by getting their own prices down to be closer to the Chinese prices um and so we have to do that too I mean I think the Tariff will be necessary at the beginning uh but uh you know I just think that maybe the the actual slow slower pace of adoption of these vehicles is a benefit for us because as Tom says we don’t have any plants up and running yet they’ve all been announced and the money’s been flowing from the governments but there aren’t any plants in businesses yet or very few so we’ve got to get to work on that too yeah and Christie in the meantime there is a government imposed deadline for everybody uh with a new you know that wants to buy a new vehicle that it has to be zero emission yeah and I think you know I think that puts a lot of pressure on Canadians I think frankly at the end of the day to Tom’s point I think people are looking at the evidence of how our climate is evolving and uh they are concerned about that and there’s polling to indicate as much um but at the same time it’s about also being able to get access to those Vehicles making those Vehicles affordable and again for Canada to have the necessary infrastructure in order for Canadians to be able to to use these vehicles again in in a Canadian winter for example um so you know at the end of the day I think more people do want to get into the the realm of EVS but um there are a lot of barriers frankly I think for the average Canadian to perhaps uh go out and and to buy an electric vehicle I don’t own an electric vehicle full full disclosure um you know it’s it’s not necessarily the most accessible thing right now a lot of barriers and maybe some barriers to some of those Chinese vehicles coming into Canada if the federal government does take Fords um advice and go ahead and slap some tariffs on them okay we’re going to

The Front Bench panel discusses how China is flooding the market with cheap EVs and what Canada is doing to protect home-grown investments.

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