Canada will lower tariffs on Chinese EVs from 100% to 6%

[DuoRivians]

https://electrek.co/2026/01/16/canada-breaks-with-us-slashes-100-tariffs-chinese-evs/

It applies to 49,000 cars initially, but I think this is a positive development for Canadian consumers.

Sponsored

 

[cbrcanuck]

Going to shake things up, that’s for sure

 

[BigSkies]

For a sense of scale, Tesla sold about 50k cars per year in Canada before the whole "heil Hitler" thing.

US based automakers are going to increasingly screwed over the next few decades. Successful car makers are global entities, not national ones. GM, Ford and Stellantis do business in many markets around the globe. A successful auto business is all about scale and how many pieces of metal a car maker can ship.

Without delving too much into politics, it's hard to see US automakers competing while making tens-of-thousands of EV's a year, in a world (ex-US) that is rapidly electrifying transportation.

 

[Time2Roll]

I get the tariffs and if the world could agree on a flat and fixed 5 to 10% on everything everywhere with no exceptions I believe we could all get along better. My dislike is the political picking of winners and losers instead of a free market or at least even handed market.

Yes there will be some changes in Canada as these and other vehicles are imported from China.

 

[beatle]

It's interesting that Canada had a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs to begin with since they have no auto industry to protect. I think they make batteries though.

I wonder if it was originally in place as a strategic alignment with the US?

 

[Cycliste]

“Canada put [100%] tariffs on Chinese EVs in lockstep with the Biden administration. Today's departure from that policy is yet another sign that the Canada-U.S. trade relationship is now very different.”

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/li...ehicles-canola-trade-deal-carney-xi-9.7048058

 

[Thedude]

It's interesting that Canada had a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs to begin with since they have no auto industry to protect. I think they make batteries though.

I wonder if it was originally in place as a strategic alignment with the US?

Ford, GM, Honda, Toyota and Stellantis all have factories in Canada and build about 1.5 million vehicles a year. They might not be Canada companies but the tariffs help protect the employees and tax revenues.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

The USA’s position on a global scale just keeps getting worse. US manufacturing is going to take a huge hit here. I wish I could get more into this but it’s too far into politics.

 

[Budman]

I wonder how many prospective pickup truck buyers in Canada are now more seriously considering Toyota/Honda/Nissan's instead of Ram/Chevy/Ford?? Sales figures over the next few years will be interesting to watch.

 

[iamnid]

Going to be a lot of auto industry jobs lost in Canada.

 

[iansriv]

I'm all for competition as long as it's fair. PRC supports their mfgs in a way we don't. The profit margins for Chinese mfgs are terrible but subsidised. They are flooding global markets with a plan to run the major companies out of business. I'm not smart enough to be political but am patriotic enough to always try to buy American. We can argue Tesla vs Rivian all day but they are both US companies that make great products and deserve our support.

 

[M3_R2]

It kind of started with the Extradition case of Meng Wanzhou, daughter of the founder of Huawei. Extradition Case of Meng Wanzhou

She was arrested on a somewhat bogus U.S. Extradition request after arriving at Vancouver International airport on Dec 1 2018. Her incarceration was very swanky.

China subsequently detained the "2 Michael's" in apparent retaliation and they were held in poor conditions for 1,019 days.
Michael Spavor
Michael Kovrig

Basically, Canada was used as a pawn in a trade dispute between the USA and China. Hauwei wanted to supply equipment for 5G networks. The USA said Hauwei was violating sanctions against Iran.

In any case, this crashed relations between China and Canada and in 2022, again, in support of the USA, Canada banned Huawei from Canada’s 5G networks as well as Chinese tech company ZTE Corp. from the country’s telecommunication systems.

In 2023, Canada expelled a Chinese diplomat in Toronto whom it accused of involvement in a plot to intimidate Canadian lawmaker and MP, Michael Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong after Chong criticized Beijing’s human rights record. China responded by expelling a Canadian diplomat in Shanghai. Canada also launched an inquiry into whether China interfered in Canadian elections in 2019 and 2021.

Then, further to this, we went lockstep with the USA, slapping a 100% tariff on Chinese EV's. China responds with crippling our agricultural exports, especially canola and pork.

The prices we have paid in support of morons in Washington is unbelievable.

The current changes are simply an attempt to get back to past relationships in light of the reality of present trade circumstances. Canada needs more diversity in it's trade as we can no longer rely on trade stability from the US.

 

[Cycliste]

Nicely refreshed my memory

Sponsored