{"id":214399,"date":"2025-10-15T08:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/214399\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T08:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:32:07","slug":"team-canada-shoots-on-its-own-net-in-trade-talks-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/214399\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Canada shoots on its own net in trade talks with China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the weekend, China\u2019s ambassador to Canada said that if Ottawa drops its tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, it will drop agricultural tariffs on products like canola.Yves Herman\/Reuters<\/p>\n

There goes Team Canada. <\/p>\n

The rock-solid group of premiers fighting as one in a trade war are being chipped apart, their united front undone not just by the threats of U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> but by the promises of the Chinese ambassador Wang Di.<\/p>\n

Now Canada, caught in a trade war with two capricious superpower partners, is negotiating against itself. This country might as well put up a sign inviting bigger players to come to fleece us.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Mr. Wang made a public offer: If Canada drops its 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, Beijing will drop its punishing tariffs on Canadian agricultural products, notably canola. <\/p>\n

Two Prairie premiers, Saskatchewan\u2019s Scott Moe and Manitoba\u2019s Wab Kinew, jumped on the promise, calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> to take the deal \u2013 and upsetting the Ontario-based auto sector.<\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford<\/a> said he understands Mr. Moe and Mr. Kinew are advocating for their provinces\u2019 interests, \u201cbut there\u2019s no damn way we should drop tariffs on China<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada can lead EV supply chain despite trade war and murky policies, industry players say<\/a><\/p>\n

The president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers\u2019 Association, Flavio Volpe, had a pointier criticism of the two premiers for taking \u201cthe Chinese ambassador\u2019s cue to throw us under the bus.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re spending all this time in an unprecedented two-front trade fight with the world\u2019s two biggest economic superpowers and we\u2019ve got to look around to see who\u2019s going to let us down on our own team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Not so long ago, Mr. Carney seemed to be working with a tight-knit, cohesive group of provincial premiers, with the occasional exception of Alberta\u2019s Danielle Smith. That\u2019s unravelling quickly.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Ms. Smith\u2019s push for a new oil pipeline<\/a> to the Pacific had British Columbia Premier David Eby spitting. On Tuesday, Mr. Eby suggested Ottawa doesn\u2019t take saving B.C. forestry jobs as seriously as saving Ontario auto and steel jobs. \u201cBecause Ottawa is in Ontario, because it\u2019s beside Quebec, those provinces are often front of mind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On one level, this is an inevitable reversion to premiers putting their constituents first. But fighting Team Canada sometimes means scoring on your own net.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s steep tariffs are clobbering the exports of canola seeds, oil and meal that usually bring in billions to Canadian farmers, particularly in the provinces led by Mr. Moe and Mr. Kinew. Pork farmers have been hit, too. There is understandable resentment that auto-sector protections rebounded onto agricultural producers.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not smart to snatch at Beijing\u2019s offer to sacrifice one sector for the other.<\/p>\n

China has for years repeatedly slapped trade barriers on Canadian canola or meat as leverage to demand what it wants. And then it has done so again.<\/p>\n

The new promise to lift them can only be taken to be a capricious and temporary reprieve, one that will last only till China has new demands in a year, or two, or three. But the concession it wants on EVs could be a long-lasting blow to Canada\u2019s auto sector.<\/p>\n

Ottawa informally reviewing China EV tariffs with no specific deadline<\/a><\/p>\n

One reason that Ottawa slapped hefty tariffs on Chinese EVs \u2013 as did the United States and the European Union \u2013 is that the vehicles are subsidized and dumped onto foreign markets at low prices, undercutting \u201clocal\u201d producers to gain market share. North American automakers aren\u2019t ready for that.<\/p>\n

In 2023, China\u2019s share of the market in Mexico went from 5 per cent to 20 per cent in one year, Mr. Volpe said.<\/p>\n

That kind of shift in the Canadian auto market could change the face of a sector already coping with Mr. Trump\u2019s stated goal of seeing Canadian assembly plants move to the U.S. It could upend supply chains and lead manufacturers to close plants and wipe out a lot of jobs, and a chunk of Canada\u2019s GDP.<\/p>\n

Perhaps there could be some kind of compromise that can be made on EVs \u2013 the EU has sought to find one \u2013 but it won\u2019t be worth much if China slaps tariffs on canola again in a year or two. There isn\u2019t a good deal to be had unless it brings some kind of stable trade.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, it\u2019s best not to advertise desperation. Beijing knows that some provinces worry about auto jobs and others are concerned about oilseeds. And that the best way to press Canada is to have it negotiate against itself.<\/p>\n

That seems to be getting easier as Team Canada falls apart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Over the weekend, China\u2019s ambassador to Canada said that if Ottawa drops its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,15147,48,15148,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-214399","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-campbell-clark","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-canadian-politics","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}