Kinew says drop tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to get Chinese duties dropped

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew is asking the prime minister to scrap Canada’s 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles in return for China lifting its tariffs on Canadian canola and pork.

Kinew says in a letter to Mark Carney on Saturday that while he believes protecting Canada’s vehicle industry is important, he says the country’s approach “has created a two-front trade war that disproportionally affects Western Canada.”

The premier says in the letter that China’s tariffs — widely seen as a response to Canada imposing the electric vehicle levy — have already caused a sharp drop in canola prices and that one vertically integrated pork producer in Manitoba is reporting a $19 million negative impact on an annual basis.

Canada imposed the electric vehicle duty last year in lockstep with the United States, which also has a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, with Canada arguing the measure is meant to protect the country’s automobile industry. 

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has previously said he wanted Ottawa to do away with the electric vehicle tariff, but only if the country remained on good terms with the United States, and he has since said removing it would not be a simple fix.

Kinew says every day the tariffs remain in place, the harm to Prairie producers deepens.

“Canada’s trade policy must balance long-term industrial goals and national security with immediate economic realities as well as the national responsibility to grow every region of Canada’s economy,” Moe said in his letter to Carney.