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Canada’s largest private sector union urges government to keep surtax on EVs imported from China

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Union push: Unifor urges Ottawa to keep surtax on Chinese EVs

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Canada’s largest private sector union is calling on Ottawa to keep its 100 per cent surtax on electric vehicles imported from China, warning that removing it would threaten auto jobs across the country.

Unifor submitted its position to the federal government’s Section 53 review of the tariff, saying Chinese automakers enjoy unfair advantages through state subsidies, weak labour standards and carbon-intensive production.

“Lifting tariffs on China will make a bad situation far worse, if Canada becomes a dumping ground for cheap, unfairly subsidized imports,” said Unifor national president Lana Payne. “It would be nothing short of a self-inflicted wound at a time when one-third of our members at Detroit Three facilities in Canada are on layoff, with three automobile assembly plants sitting idle.”

The union said lifting the surtax now would risk undoing recent investments in vehicle assembly, battery production and critical minerals. It is asking Ottawa to extend the surtax for at least 24 months, broaden it to include EV and battery components, and reinstate federal EV rebates restricted to Canadian and North American-built vehicles. The union also wants stronger enforcement against goods made with forced labour.

Unifor said Canada should align its approach with the United States and Mexico. The U.S. has combined tariffs of 127.5 per cent on Chinese EVs and plans to restrict connected car technology by 2027, while Mexico raised its EV import tariffs to 50 per cent this year after Chinese vehicles surged to 70 per cent of its market.

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Hotznplotzn @lemmy.sdf.org

Canada’s largest private sector union urges government to keep surtax on EVs imported from China
Electric Vehicles @midwest.social
Hotznplotzn @lemmy.sdf.org

Canada’s largest private sector union urges government to keep surtax on EVs imported from China
19 comments

  • This will just reduce my choices in the future, because "a car made in North America" at this point in time is a woefully sub-par product and I'm disinclined to continue rewarding mediocrity, and wholly opposed to any approach espoused by the Americans.

  • Tying our industry to backwards focussed USA isn't going to help Canadians move into the future. Do we want EVs or do we want to re-open coal plants for Trumps pals?

    • Best I can do is rolling coal in a RAM 1500 through the 401 tunnel for $100B. 🤭

  • The union said lifting the surtax now would risk undoing recent investments in vehicle assembly, battery production and critical minerals. It is asking Ottawa to extend the surtax for at least 24 months, broaden it to include EV and battery components, and reinstate federal EV rebates restricted to Canadian and North American-built vehicles. The union also wants stronger enforcement against goods made with forced labour. Unifor said Canada should align its approach with the United States and Mexico. The U.S. has combined tariffs of 127.5 per cent on Chinese EVs and plans to restrict connected car technology by 2027, while Mexico raised its EV import tariffs to 50 per cent this year after Chinese vehicles surged to 70 per cent of its market.

    I don't disagree that China is going to flood our markets with cheap EVs, with huge impacts on our own auto plants.

    But holy fuck guys, we just dropped our previous pledge of 30% EV by 2026. What's the plan - indefinitely push off electrification? We're getting lapped by China on renewable and electrification technology, and its only going to get worse if we dont FORCE companies to electrify and move faster.

    On top of that, the US companies are all starting to move their car manufacturing back inside the US. Our auto sector is in serious trouble regardless of our move here, and continuing to put our eggs in the US basket is a mistake, IMO.

    Keep a 50% tariff, which still places these cars into an affordable price point here. Given the problems the China auto sector is in, they'll likely still move cars with that rate. Then earmark those tariffs to retrain those auto workers, or support a canadian EV manufacturer.

    • Nah, raise tariffs to make at least partially up the unfair subsidies in China and support the Canadian EV industry (the issue of forced labour, intransparent Chinese supply chains, and other things make the situation of buying Chinese cars more questionable, no?). I think the union is right.

      • There's no unfair subsidies in this context. Every country subsidizes their auto sector to one degree or anotber and there's no good distinction of what's fair and what isn't. We have subsidized American autos plenty. We just recently subsidized the buildout of VW and Stellantis factories by billions.

        Our manufacturers don't charge the prices they do because of labour. Labour is under 15% of the cost of a vehicle. They (we, I work for one) have increased prices consistently above inflation for decades. They've eliminated the all lower cost models. Ford doesn't make Fiesta, Focus or any sedan in NA anymore. They make only SUVs and trucks and the starting prices are way higher than what was on the market just 10 years ago. That's because there's higher margins in larger vehicles, something openly reiterated internally (and sometimes externally). This is a huge problem because unlike Europe, we are extremely car-dependent. As a result this serves as a significant drag on our economy along with housing and some other sectors. Most of the profits are exported to major shareholders in the US.

        Lowering auto prices would have dramatically positive effect on our economy, while hurting the auto sector (me) a bit. As shit has gotten proper ridiculous:

        Using AutoTrader’s price index from late last year, Ratehub’s VP of Insurance Matt Hands used its average new car price of $66,550, and average used car price of $35,754 and sought to find the middle ground.

        But we know the solution since we've used it in the past. We have to get foreign manufacturers to build factories here. Just like we did with the Japanese. Then workers affected at Ford and GM could move to BYD and Leapmotor, while still being protected by Unifor and the Canada Labour Code. And we get to keep the ability to make moderb vehicles in case of international disputes. If Ford and GM refuse to build something competitive of course.

        Before any of my #fuckcars comrades chime in - yes we should put a shit ton of money in mass transit instead, if at all possible.

  • It's shit like this that makes it so hard to support unions.

    The North American auto industry has failed miserably to produce vehicles people want, instead opting for high-cost monster trucks with low visibility and high fatality ratings. They deserve to be decimated by companies producing smaller, more efficient, and safer vehicles, but no. They'll have to pry these monster abominations from our cold dead nation instead.

    Unions are proving time and again that they can't be trusted to be on the right side of critical issues like climate if it means some people might be out of a job that kills people.

    • I get the frustration but unions are generally on our side of economic issues. Unifor doesn't care what autos we produce, EVs, big or small. Or whether their members produce autos at all. They care about Unifor members having well paying jobs through getting a larger share of the corporate profits they generate. This is in the majority of Canadians' interest. That money is recycled throughout the economy and it lifts other wages too.

      Whenever the interest of a particular union in an industry comes in contradiction with the rest of us, it's important to keep in mind that those workers interest isn't the same as the corporatiom they work for, and that if we throw them under the bus because they aren't unionized, they'd make their anger known at the election polls. This is where considering their interest being distinct from their bosses is useful. We can and should take care of workers whose industries harm the rest of us. Unions can actually be allies in this. If we make workers whole, through concrete programs of retraining, retirement, we'd face a lot less resistance to tackling harmful industries. We could even get productive cooperation and spare us the backlash come election time. Of course that requires dialing down free market fundamentalism a few notches.

  • If Chinese manufactures can exceed Canadian standards, provide spare parts for a minimum of 10 years from the date of manufacture, AND allow all software to be audited for both safe function and security. Then sure. Bring on the cheap EVs.

    (But not even our current domestically produced vehicles meet those requirements)

    • Make the factories here, would solve most of that and take care of Unifor's workers.

  • Ah, another thread with Hotznplotzn and randomname, the two accounts always pushing the same narratives.

    I see Hotznplotzn is now up to 3,300 posts in 8 months, and randomname is up to 900 posts in 8 months.

    Highly productive work.

19 comments