Canada can’t import its way to net-zero, or to a better trading model. It needs to build here at home.
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For Canadian autoworkers already reeling from U.S. trade aggression, idled plants, and stalled EV investment, [the recent Canada-China EV trade] deal creates new vulnerabilities at precisely the wrong moment.
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China ... is not a normal trading partner. Its auto industry is the product of deliberate state controls, deplorable labour conditions and structural overcapacity. Electric vehicles and their key components (e.g. battery cells) have been a strategic priority for government since at least 2013.
Chinese automakers are encouraged to produce far more vehicles than their domestic market can absorb, then export the excess.
This isn’t competition, it’s market distortion. Canadian regulators are working constantly to control the flow of low-cost Chinese imports on a range of products, like steel, guarding domestic industries against unfair practices and injury. China is among the world’s worst offenders of dumping.
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Ottawa has tried to minimize the political blowback of this China deal, claiming the quota represents just three per cent of annual vehicle sales. That figure is misleading. It compares Chinese EV imports to total vehicle sales in Canada, including gas-powered trucks and SUVs. Measured against the EV market alone, 49,000 vehicles represent roughly 20 per cent of new EV and hybrid sales, based on 2025 sales data.
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With EV demand weakened by a temporary rollback of consumer purchasing incentives and gaps in charging infrastructure (only recently reinstated as part of the feds’ new auto strategy), Chinese imports could soon account for as much as 30 per cent of the EV market. This ratio far exceeds other automaking regions, like Europe, where Chinese automakers have wreaked havoc on auto supply chains and local jobs, albeit accounting for only 16.5 per cent of the EV sales market. In Mexico, a Chinese vehicle import surge (that started as a trickle) forced government to safeguard its domestic auto industry by raising import tariffs to 50 per cent.
The concerns for autoworkers are even more acute. Once Chinese automakers have set in place Canadian retail and afterparts networks, they will be given clearance to supply unlimited quantities of vehicles from numerous factories outside China, at standard or even zero tariffs, sidestepping the quota altogether. Canada must establish rigorous monitoring and authentication protocols to avoid import surges, and trans-shipment of Chinese vehicles through other countries.
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Canadian officials would be wise to contain the unintended spread of cheap Chinese EVs, or risk undoing its own auto industry strategy. If one thing is clear, its that Canada cannot import its way to a net-zero future. It must build it here at home.
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