Canada is only allowing a very limited number of Chinese EVs to be sold without 100% tariff markup. Mostly to put up a token resistance to Trump's advances on their sovereignty.
The U.S. has already stated that none of these EVs can be exported to the continental U.S. NAFTA-be-damned. They may not even cross the border if some Congressmen have their way.
So it seems logical that the next Chinese ploy is to become a major shareholder in a so-called Mexican car manufacturer which is merely a front to export Chinese EVs to the U.S.
I also predict we'll see large numbers of VinFast EVs (from Vietnam) being exported to the U.S. in the coming years. Vietnamese companies are mostly covertly owned and controlled by Chinese counterparts.
> Canada is only allowing a very limited number of Chinese EVs to be sold without 100% tariff markup
And Mexico acquiesced to Trump and put a 50% tariff on Chinese EVs, making them as expensive as American cars. It's mostly BYD who still sells in Mexico, and overall, Chinese EVs make 9% of new car sales.
"Mostly to put up a token resistance to Trump's advances on their sovereignty"
Canada originally imposed the 100% tariff against Chinese EVs in lockstep with the US to protect North American automakers. In return China retaliated with massive tariffs on Canadian agricultural products. Which, I mean, is 100% fair: The argument against Chinese cars -- the subsidized nonsense -- is farcical, and you could 100% claim that almost every American manufacturer is subsidized by the military, and of course companies like Tesla are basically welfare cases.
The leaders of great American capitalism sure hate capitalism.
Anyways, if the automakers aren't willing to stand up to the pedo for Canada -- which has been producing cars as long as the US has, and buys far more cars than it makes -- then we're happy to move on from them and let them die. Why endure agricultural tariffs and trade friction if it isn't our fight anymore?
It isn't "token resistance", it's playing our own trade game, for our own benefit, and Canada is going to be doing a lot more of it. I know how offensive this is to American exceptionalists who have a serious case of main character syndrome.
And as the Chinese automakers start setting up dealer and support networks, they can negotiate on increasing the quota, making it worth both of our interests.
It's actually funny that Greer, Trump's trade imbecile, recently moped and whined about Canada "globalizing". Gosh, why don't we just throw in with that criminal empire of bullies and fools?
"NAFTA-be-damned"
Foreign products imported into Canada were never covered under NAFTA, nor have we ever claimed the same. No one ever thought we could import Chinese cars and suddenly export them under NAFTA. We reduced prices and opened up competition with more options for the benefit of Canadians, saving us from being limited to a bunch of American dogshit.
Now the "you can't drive here on your vacation" is a hilarious bit of defensiveness by the corporate shill American politicians (every American politician is bought and owned, whether by fearful-of-competition automakers, Israel, military contractors, etc. An astonishingly corrupt, busted country), and honestly it's worth a laugh. Maybe they haven't noticed, but to most Canadians, realizing how far and how fast the US has collapsed, driving there is no bueno. That consequence is cosmically funny in how it just fully fails to read the room.
But cars from foreign manufacturers "made" in Mexico or Canada can be exported to the U.S. per NAFTA, like everyone's doing now. The Chinese are currently building loads of EV car factories in Mexico in the hope they can export them North when this Administration ends.
Fat chance.
You can't assemble a bunch of imported parts and say it's a NAFTA car. 75% of the content of the vehicle has to come from North America. There are other limits on the minimum labour cost and steel/aluminum content.
So no, they are secretly planning to relabel a Chinese car. Nothing works like that.