Canadian auto industry leader calls out premiers, urges ‘Canadian response’

Honda employees work along the vehicle assembly line before an event announcing plans for a Honda electric vehicle battery plant in Alliston, Ont., on Thursday, April 25, 2024.

The head of Canada’s automotive parts industry is warning against dropping tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, saying the move would jeopardize the country’s EV sector and send the wrong message during an ongoing trade dispute with Beijing.

“I am reminding (the premiers) publicly, that if Canada is in a trade war with a country, then the response has to be a Canadian response,” Flavio Volpe said in an interview with CTV News Channel on Sunday, referring to premiers Wab Kinew of Manitoba and Scott Moe of Saskatchewan, who have both called for lowering tariffs to protect prairie canola exports.

“These Chinese EVs are not made for profit, they are subsidized,” the president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association said, arguing that the vehicles are “dumped around the world” to flood markets and suppress local competition.

“This is a national play,” he added. “We’re in the middle of a game, and the only thing that changed ... was the Chinese ambassador said, ‘If you do this, we’ll give you that.’ And last time I checked, the Chinese ambassador was sent from Beijing, not from Ottawa.”

Volpe also criticized Moe and Kinew for, in his view, echoing Beijing’s position.

“They took cues from the Chinese ambassador,” he said. “We don’t take our cues from somebody else. We work for Team Canada. I expect better leadership from two thoughtful premiers.”

Volpe said he has personally negotiated with Chinese automakers in the past, encouraging them to build in Canada. But that dialogue collapsed after China arrested Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig in 2018.

“They pulled out when we pushed back,” he said, referencing the diplomatic freeze that followed the “Two Michaels” incident.

Volpe’s comments come in response to remarks made by China’s ambassador to Canada in an exclusive interview with CTV’s Question Period.

The ambassador said that if Canada removes its tariffs on Chinese products, China will drop its own restrictions on “the relevant products of Canada.”

The commercial relationship between the two countries has been rocky, particularly since Canada imposed a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese EVs last fall, a decision Ottawa said was necessary to protect its domestic industry.