Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland announced the Government of Canada intends to implement a 100 per cent surtax on all Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), effective October 1, 2024.
This includes electric and certain hybrid passenger automobiles, trucks, buses, and delivery vans. This surtax will apply in addition to the Most-Favoured Nation import tariff of 6.1 per cent that currently applies to EVs produced in China and imported into Canada.
The Canadian government says it is imposing the surtax due to China’s unfair trade practices, weak standards across EV supply chains, including poor labour standards, a lack of environmental protections, and trade policies supporting oversupply.
Canada’s international partners, including the United States and the European Union, have recently responded to unfair competition to their EV industries.