Latest / Kvetch & Release / NDP support 100% tariff on Chinese EVs

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NDP support 100% tariff on Chinese EVs · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Well, folks, we are looking at the EV industry. How can we
• 0:04
  not be here in Windsor Essex specifically, and we have been hearing that the
• 0:10
  federal government is now actively considering the next steps to stop the flow of Chinese
• 0:16
  made electric vehicles into the country, which could include new tariffs. The United
• 0:21
  States has tariffs of up to one hundred percent on Chinese evs that are imported.
• 0:27
  We're looking at one hundred percent or more. And this is a call
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  that is now being echoed and supported by Canada's New Democratic Party, the NDP.
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  Joining me right now is the NDP critic for Innovation, Science and Industry.
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  He's also the Windsor West MP. My MP Brian Massey, Brian,
• 0:48
  how you doing good? Thanks? How are you today? Doing really well?
• 0:50
  Thank you very much for joining me here. New Democrats have now put
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  out a statement you support the call for tariffs on Chinese made electric vehicles.
• 0:59
  Why? Well, there's a number of issues that have been taking place over
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  the last number of years and they've really come to ahead the last basically year,
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  in particular, in a few months, where the United States has already
• 1:11
  acted, the European Union has already acted because the Chinese vehicles are getting significant
• 1:18
  subsidies from long working hours, low pay, environmental degradation, and a series
• 1:23
  of manufacturing policies to dump them onto the international markets, including Canada and the
• 1:29
  United States. And this is something that even just last week, I was
• 1:33
  meeting with the auto companies with regards to this, and it's something that there's
• 1:38
  pretty much a strong segment for this, and I've been in touch with Uniform
• 1:42
  National as well too, looking at their concerns about it. So it was
• 1:47
  an easy call at the end of the day, because we've been raising the
• 1:49
  issue over eves and having a proper plan for a long period of time.
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  We still don't have a national auto strategy. A national auto strategy should include
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  a trade policy with it. And that's why I'm still critical of some of
• 2:00
  the things that have been taking place, because yes, we are finally winning
• 2:02
  market share and getting some new evy development in our community with a high degree
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  of public money being involved, but there still isn't a business plan for an
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  auto policy which is comprehensive, and that's why we find ourselves reacting again today.
• 2:15
  You've been calling for an auto policy for a very long time, quite
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  as long as as long as I've been fighting for the new border. That
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  was my first public and he was nineteen ninety eight on that. So I
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  guess auto policy comes in two thousand and two and a jibway of and ten.
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  So yes, you have to have a endgame. But I mean it's
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  you know, it's frustrating because you could avoid some of the to see things.
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  And one of the ones I point to in terms of I've been trying
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  to get the government and even the promise of the attention to this too with
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  regards to incentives. But on the federal right now we're going we're looking at
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  a federal tax on and trade coming in from China, but you can still
• 2:52
  get a Chinese made vehicle and get the federal tax incentive from the federal government
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  for the purchase of the vehicles. So we have to look at more and
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  just tariffs. Just looking at tariffs is just a very much a reactionary and
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  is not as simplistic in terms of getting to an end result that we want.
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  So it's one of the tools that's available to ourselves to deal with.
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  But again, I mean, if we're going to have a tariff on a
• 3:14
  vehicle coming in and give them pain taxpayers money to actually buy the vehicle.
• 3:17
  It doesn't make any sense. We've got to change some of the stuff that
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  is incomprehensible. Yeah, half of the tests are made in China and so
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  you just do the and they're on their website in terms of the availability,
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  and you know, in Ontario doesn't even have a tax rebate for consumers anymore.
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  So we're not even like supporting in Ontario our own auto manufacturer manufacturers,
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  and that's where I've been really, you know, a little bit distraught in
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  the sense that, you know, we are doing the barry plants and the
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  different stuff that's happening, which is excellent, but the cost of these vehicles
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  and the way the companies are doing them and putting all the incentives to the
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  money to the companies versus out of the consumers that live in Ontario in Canada
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  is a poor strategy. There needs to be a balance in that the winner
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  at the end of the day has to be the Canadian taxpayer in the public
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  and that's really where we're going to have longevity. Yeah, absolutely, so,
• 4:08
  I mean I agree with you on that one. We want the taxpayer
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  to be the one to walk away as the biggest beneficiary of any of this.
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  But the incomprehensibleness of having a carrot and stick strategy both employed at the
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  exact same time to try to stop Chinese evs from coming in and then also
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  rewarding it is just beyond hilarious. I guess it speaks to the fact that
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  if we had a comprehensive strategy for auto that wouldn't be occurring. There's a
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  reason, though, that these vehicles are so cheap, and it's not just
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  because they have immense efficiency In China. There are trade issues that are a
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  concern, there are national security issues that are a concern. There is the
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  fact that their workers don't make nearly as much money. Flavio Volpe, the
• 4:51
  head of the Automotive Arts Manufacturers Association, says, you should remember they pay
• 4:57
  their workers five thousand dollars a year. They subsidize their steel and material prices
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  well below American costs, North American costs. And they just approved two hundred
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  and eighteen gigawatts of new coal power. Yeah, exactly, And to build
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  that pollute the planet and then move to electric vehicles. It doesn't make like
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  they're not adding up. We need to do this clean and green from the
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  start of the car to the end of it, and we still haven't dealt
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  with the battery disposal at the end of it. No country is really doing
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  with that very well. We actually have one plant in British Columbia that can
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  do the recycling. But that's another side spree to this. But you raised
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  one that's important. It's also national security because even back in twenty seventeen,
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  the Privacy Commissioner raised the problem with Chinese cars coming into the market and Canadian
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  information going back, and TESLAG actually got caught with that originally having to actually
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  change their policies because Canadian information and driving and other prophecy issues was being exposed
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  without even consent or knowledge of the individual. And so you have all these
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  things because vehicle is also going to become a much more important with regards to
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  data collection and consumer habits and so forth. Mean it's a highly sophisticated piece
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  of equipment. And then lastly, by doing this innovation into the green technology
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  and so forth, we can now move away from other types of combustible engines
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  and other types of products and services from recreation to have the equipment into you
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  know, even your gardening and your other types of things. We are actually
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  transitioning out of the combustional edge engine for other things with the innovation that comes
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  out of having this industry in our community. So it becomes a very much
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  important part about the evolution of our society and trying to go cleaner. That's
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  what the thing is all about. We're not just going green and electrified because
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  we like the look of the fancy new cars. There are some underlying reasons
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  as well. Brian, thanks for joining me to break this down why you
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  support this one hundred percent tariff on the importation of Chinese evs. Thanks for
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  having me and have a good weekend. Thank you you too. Brian Massey
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  is the Member of Parliament for Windsor West as well as the NDP Critic for
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  Innovation, Science and Industry.