The Canadian government is considering raising tariffs on Chinese-made EVs, a move that would impact Tesla.
The question of tariffs has been a hot topic in this week’s Asia-Pacific Cooperation forum. The United States announced a significant tariff increase on EVs, computer chips and medical products from China this week. The increase will see Chinese-made EV-related tariffs go from 25% to 100%, bringing the total vehicle duties to 102.5%.
According to Bloomberg, Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng confirmed that Canada is considering the tariff hike but would not confirm the exact amount.
In a phone interview during the forum, Minister Ng noted that:
We are looking at this very carefully, and we have an open dialogue with our American partners.
Currently, Tesla, which imports the Model 3 made at Giga Shanghai, and other Chinese-made EVs have a small tariff in Canada of around six percent. As long as the vehicle falls under the pricing cap, the vehicles are eligible for federal and provincial incentives, which add up to as much as $12,000.
For its sake, the Canadian automotive sector has been vocal in its opposition to automakers utilizing this relatively cheap loophole to cut down on manufacturing in North America.
In an interview with Bloomberg, the Canadian Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association said this:
We’ve raised this publicly, we’ve raised it privately, everything short of yelling at the moon from the top of a mountain to get somebody to close that door. And it’s wide open. It’s noticed in the US.
It is unclear if coordinated tariffs are on the agenda in the US-Canada bilateral meetings. However, with the amount of media on the question, it would not be surprising to see a US-like tariff imposed in the coming weeks by the Canadian government.
