Ottawa’s decision in 2024 to impose 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles pushed the two countries into a trade war.Annegret Hilse/Reuters
China’s ambassador says Canada’s steep tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles are preventing the sort of investment here that has led to new auto-sector factories and jobs in Europe and Asia, and warns that the Trump administration’s call for Ottawa to join forces against Beijing represents an outdated “Cold War mentality.”
Wang Di, China’s envoy to Canada, cautioned against the formation of geopolitical blocs, in an interview with The Globe and Mail on Wednesday, the day after Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, talked of the Canadian and U.S. auto sectors collaborating so they are “beating China and not each other.”
The United States under President Donald Trump has repeatedly pushed for Canada to act in concert with American officials against China. Last month, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told a media briefing in Washington that the U.S. government also wants Ottawa’s help in “countering the Chinese Communist Party influence in our hemisphere.”
Canada and China are locked in a trade war triggered by Ottawa’s decision in 2024 to follow the Biden administration in imposing 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. Canadian and American officials said the measures were necessary to protect domestic auto sectors from lower-priced Chinese EVs that were being overproduced and flooding global markets. Canada also enacted a 25-per-cent tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum.
In response, China imposed retaliatory tariffs on Canadian canola oil and meal, peas and seafood. Mr. Wang said the only way China will lift these is if Canada drops its EV and steel and aluminum tariffs.
Canada’s auto sector is heavily dependent on its American counterpart. Since the EV tariffs on China, however, Mr. Trump has said he doesn’t want Canada making cars for his country and wants auto production moved inside U.S. territory.
Wang Di says Ottawa's move to tariff Chinese-made electric vehicles hurt its chances for investment from Beijing.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
The envoy said Chinese EV makers were previously interested in investing in Canada but the 100-per-cent tariffs had discouraged them from doing so.
“Let’s find a solution quickly to remove these tariffs so that we can focus more on how we can strengthen our co-operation together.”
“China’s EV industry has the world-leading technology. And Canada has a very good foundation in terms of automaking industry,” he said. “That means we have great complementarities in this area.”
He noted Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. is partnering with Ford Motor Co. to build a US$3.5-billion EV battery plant in Michigan, and Spanish vehicle maker Ebro-EV Motors and China’s Chery Automobile have begun vehicle production in a joint venture in Barcelona. Geely Auto, another Chinese producer, is also looking at setting up a factory in Spain to serve the European market, he said, while BYD has set up a plant in Thailand.
The European Union, which also imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs, has been in negotiations with Beijing for months on resolving its trade war with China.
China’s envoy to Canada has made diplomatic inroads with one of the provinces hurt by Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs. Mr. Wang said he met with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and members of his cabinet the week of May 12.
Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters at his meeting with premiers June 2 that Canada is talking to China about removing its retaliatory tariffs, and Mr. Moe spoke after him to say he wants to secure a broader trading relationship with Beijing.
The U.S. is also trying to enlist Canada into joining Mr. Trump’s planned Golden Dome missile shield program aimed at blocking threats from Iran, North Korea, China and Russia. Mr. Trump even said Canadians could join for free if they agreed to be annexed as the “51st state,” but otherwise it would cost Canada US$61-billion. Mr. Carney has rejected any talk of political union but is in talks on whether to join Golden Dome.
Mr. Wang declined to counsel Canada on whether to join Golden Dome but noted the Chinese government has criticized it as a threat to global peace. “It has some offensive components to it, and it will intensify the arms race in the world, which will not be helpful to the peaceful development and stability of the world,” he said.
He said Canada shouldn’t be pressured into commitments by other countries.
“I think what the Canadian government should be doing is to make decisions based on the interests of the Canadian people, just like any other government in the world, instead of pursuing the interests of others or under the request of others.”
Canada and China’s relationship in recent years was damaged by a public inquiry into foreign interference by countries including China – a charge Beijing denies.
Mr. Wang said he is loath to tell Canada how to proceed on Golden Dome for fear he be accused of meddling in Canadian affairs.
“As for whether Canada wants to focus more on how to improve your people’s lives, or you want to spend more money on other things, I don’t think I can say more on that, because that will be interpreted as foreign interference.”
After the U.S., China was Canada’s second-biggest export market in 2024.
The envoy noted that Chinese Premier Li Qiang recently sent Mr. Carney a message congratulating him on his ascension to the Prime Minister’s Office that proposed they take the “opportunity to promote China-Canada relations in the right direction.”
Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, said China is an important trading partner in areas such as agriculture and energy, and trade in those areas should be deepened.
But “concerns that were present with respect to China just a few months ago are still there,” she said. “Just because our relationship with the U.S. is now difficult, it does not mean that those national-security concerns or economic-security concerns have disappeared.”