‘They want to come and open a big manufacturing facility and employ Unifor employees … but don’t be shipping cars in (that are) not manufactured by Ontarians’
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
Premier Doug Ford says that unless China opens up a factory in Ontario and hires Unifor employees, the federal government should keep its tariffs on electric vehicles from the country in place.
The comments were made at an unrelated news conference on Thursday ahead of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s trip to Beijing next week, where he’s scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
It will be the first time a Canadian prime minister has visited China since Justin Trudeau in 2017. Carney has signalled that he’s ready to deepen Canada’s relationship with China as he looks to diversify the country’s trade amid the trade war with the United States.
This includes “looking at” Trudeau’s decision to impose 100 per cent tariffs on all electric vehicles (EVs) and certain hybrid passenger cars, trucks, buses and delivery vans from China. The policy sparked retaliation from Beijing, which applied a 100 per cent tariff on Canadian canola oil and meal, and a 75.8 per cent tariff on canola seed.
Chinese officials have said they will lift the tariffs on canola if Canada drops its tariffs on EVs.
In the fall, Ford sent a letter to Carney arguing that tariffs on Chinese EVs are “essential to levelling the playing field” and could be “critical to securing a trade agreement with the U.S.” The United States was first to impose similar tariffs on electric vehicles.
It’s a sentiment Ford repeated Thursday, with a caveat.
“We can’t back down, simple as that,” Ford said of the tariffs. “They want to come and open a big manufacturing facility and employ Unifor employees, well, let’s talk, but don’t be shipping cars in (that are) not manufactured by Ontarians.”
He said that would be the only acceptable compromise.
“Come here and look at the market, and maybe it will hold other automakers accountable, well, the U.S. automakers accountable, when they’re shipping vehicles up here,” the premier added.
Canada is expected to participate in a review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) sometime this year after bilateral trade negotiations with the Trump administration were paused, with the president blaming Ford’s anti-tariff ad.
Carney has previously said he believes concerns related to bilateral trade will now roll into the broader CUSMA negotiations, meaning that tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on the steel, aluminum and lumber sectors will likely remain in place until that time.
Ford said that Canada’s premiers will “stand behind the prime minister” during those negotiations, describing the president as “a rare bird, to say the least.”
“They’re feeling the crunch down in the U.S.,” Ford said, adding that he is looking forward to the midterm elections down south.
“But I have all the confidence with all the premiers and the federal government trying to get the best deal we possibly can.”
Carney plans to travel to China from Jan. 13-17.
—With files from Palak Mangat
