After slamming Canada’s agreement to allow 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles into the country in exchange for eased tariffs on agricultural products as a “terrible” deal, Ontario Premier Doug Ford was seen Monday grabbing pizza with Mark Carney, saying the two agree on 99% of issues.
“We never had a row,” Ford said, on being asked by a reporter whether he and Carney had made up.
“Listen guys, we’re a big family, and sometimes brothers and sisters may disagree. But at the end of the day, make no mistake about it, we’re one country,” Ford said [video].
“I also want to thank Minister (Mélanie) Joly for coming up with a great auto strategy that the minister has put together that we’re going to be part of,” Ford added at a news conference with Joly at Queen’s Park Monday after the two met, CTV News reported.
“If companies are going to come in, no matter if it’s from China or over in Europe or over in Asia there, we have one request; build the vehicles here, protect the auto sector,” Ford said. “Make sure you get your parts here. Make sure we get the technology here. Make sure you follow the guidelines.”
On LinkedIn, Canadian Climate Institute Chief Economist Dave Sawyer has an analysis of the economic and climate implications of the Canada-China deal.
On Jan. 21, The Canadian Press reported that Ford was calling on Canadians to boycott Chinese-made electric vehicles when they are allowed back into the country.
Ford had been critical of the deal—and the fact Carney did not speak to him about it in advance—saying it will harm Ontario’s auto sector. He took that a step further that Wednesday, urging Canadians not to buy the Chinese EVs.
“Boycott the Chinese EV vehicles,” he said. “Support companies that are building vehicles here. It’s as simple as that.”
Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed while the prime minister was in China that Canada will all but drop its 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs and allow an annual import quota of up to 49,000 of the vehicles in exchange for China reducing its canola tariffs.
Ford was speaking at a news conference he held with Brian Kingston, president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association; Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association; and Lana Payne, national Unifor president, condemning the China deal as putting Ontario’s auto industry at a disadvantage.
Volpe said the intent behind the 100% tariffs was to give Canada’s EV investments a chance to succeed before more Chinese vehicles poured into the country, and this deal puts the domestic market on shakier ground.
“The concession is directly to the market prospects of the companies that we’re trying to bolster, at a time when we’re under unprecedented pressure,” he said.
“Fifty-thousand cars is about a shift at an auto plant, and a shift is 1,000 workers. It might be 5,000 supplier workers. So the challenge now is, if they’re inside the gate, what are we going to do to bolster the capabilities of Canadian suppliers with hundreds of millions of dollars of capital at risk?”
Carney has said the deal is an opportunity for Ontario, as there is interest in Chinese companies producing “affordable” electric vehicles in Canada. That interest, however, comes with no guarantees, said Payne.
“Given China’s massive, and I say massive, overcapacity in EV production, there is little reason for those companies to establish real and meaningful manufacturing operations in our country,” she said.
“As of today, we have given market access without guarantees or any real commitments, and even if investment were to materialize, experience in other parts of the world shows that core supply chain remains in China, supported by heavy state subsidies, as Flavio said, very, very low wages and suspect labour conditions, while parts are shipped in for a final assembly.”
The officials and Ford called on the federal government to step up with measures that will boost the domestic auto industry’s competitiveness, such as lowering the cost of investing in plants, machinery and research and development.
“We are in the fight of our lives here fending off Trump’s tariffs, and that fight just got a little harder,” Payne said.
“We must collectively come together to stabilize and protect the auto sector we have so we can actually have a future one.”
