Will Canada’s EV tariffs on China actually work?

By announcing a 100 per cent tariff on all electric vehicles produced in China, Canada is following in America’s footsteps. But we’re a much smaller economy than the US, which means these tariffs may not have the intended impact.

Moshe Lander is a senior lecturer in economics at Concordia University in Montreal.

“I don’t see that there’s a strong economic logic in anything the government is trying to achieve here; it just smacks of politics,” says Lander.

Of course, the intended impact also varies depending on whom you ask. Is it to score the government a few polling points? To protect Canadian EV production? Take a human rights stand? Get more Canadians into electric vehicles? There’s no way even a 100 per cent tariff can accomplish all of that, so what will this policy really do? 

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