I’m generally not a fan of government getting involved in this stuff, but sometimes it’s necessary? The thing is that the current quebec gov sees Quebec as an EV powerhouse. This is literally a new industry for Quebec, so of course we are going to stop the import of cheap chinese competition.
This is interesting reading.
I agree, but I think instead of avoiding China we need to learn from their success and build our own. That is what they did.
We also have the labor force to make EVs, which is considered higher end manufacturing.
Quebec is a blue collar economy and we have huge lithium deposits. I can’t think of a better industry for Quebec than electric EVs. I am actually shocked that we haven’t gotten into that game way earlier. That being said, the Northvolt investment was pretty reckless.
OK so the plan is to create an industry around the lithium deposits available. Smart move. If I was them I would do a deal with byd and force it to do some skills transfer.
I see no reason why BYD can’t open a factory in Quebec.
I totally agree. It reads as if Northolt struggled with dependancy on China for some key things.
It would be great for Quebec to have its own EV industry. However, it sounds like it’s still some years off. So why the tariffs now? Wouldn’t you want the public to become accustomed to EVs in the meantime?
In general, politicians use economic sanctions to retain their seats.
No more, no less.
I have been watching Canada get into the middle of the economic war between China and USA and been thinking it is not the calculated take.
Tesla moved most of its manufacturing to China and that’s really revealing.
There is really no need to reinvent the wheel. Eat humble pie, admit China has strengths and learn from them too.
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The plan I think is to make the batteries only. This is high end manufacturing with materials that we can source locally. Everyone keeps talking about “competing with China” but this doesn’t make any sense. China is a bad actor in international trade. They are not consuming enough of what they produce and simply want to dominate the trade markets. They are too involved in trade and need to re-allocate production towards internal consumption. In other words, they are producing too much of what they sell to other countries. This is a deliberate strategy to weaken our economies and pull the rug on us when the time comes. We will be left with shortages of goods, higher prices, supply chain problems, etc. So what we are doing now is putting tariffs on chinese goods to force China into a major shift towards consumption instead of exports. This will create some room for more manufacturing in the West.
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You left out the debt part. China doesn’t buy a lot. They ship you stuff and take IOUs, commonly in the form of government bonds.
They don’t take cash? Or MasterCard?
I don’t know why you view it as us vs them. What would China gain by building capacity to produce then destroying it’s clients? It would also suffer.
This argument was made before about Japan and I didn’t buy it then I don’t buy it now.
I don’t see why Canada can’t force Chinese companies to build plants in Canada if they want part of Canadian market.
Over the past 10 years, Chinese holding of US Treasuries has declined from about 1.4 trillion to about 780 billion. Over that period the cumulative trade surplus was about 3 trillion. I don’t know where the surplus funds are going , but they aren’t going to US Treasuries.
By the logic of many posters on here, China should be making almost everything because they make things at a cheaper cost. That’s simply not how it’s supposed to work in a fair trading environment.
"China's industrial policy may seem remote as we sit here in this room, but if we do not respond strategically and in a united way, the viability of businesses in both our countries and around the world could be at risk," she said.Last week, the Biden administration announced steep new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), solar products, semiconductors, battery parts, steel and other strategic industries.
Yellen had warned Chinese officials on a trip to Guangzhou and Beijing in April that the U.S. would not accept their excess production of these goods that would flood global markets with cheap exports.
In remarks later at the TechQuartier technology and finance incubator in Frankfurt, Yellen said Chinese production in these sectors significantly exceeded global demand, threatening the development of clean energy industries around the world.
The Biden administration was taking action to protect U.S. workers and firms from being undercut by “unfair Chinese economic competition”, she said.
She added that Chinese industrial capacity would be a focus of the Group of Seven finance meetings later this week in Stresa, Italy.
“We want to see healthy green technology sectors, from innovative start-ups to green manufacturing factories, in the United States, Europe, and around the world, not just in China,” Yellen said.
It feels like they do.
Around 2009 they started the Chinese Development Bank and that’s what they use to fund the belt and road initiative.
At no time do I argue China should produce everything.
Zimbabwe got China to build a lithium processing plant and BYD has plans.to set up a baterry company there. Same with Australia. Canada could engage with China if they wanted to but they get caught up with US politics.
The memo we have in the office about China is titled “Foxxcon good, Huawei bad”. No one had a problem with China when it was western companies manufacturing western branded goods there. It only became a problem once China started making Chinese goods through its own initiative. To me the problem is the west doesn’t want free market capitalism if it is losing. It only wants it when it is winning. The broader discussion is basically there is a realigning happening and there is a lot of resistance towards it.
ETA: This whole problem started because of the 2007-8 crisis. The amount of wealth that was wiped off western countries balance sheets because of that is phenomenal and that gave China the upper hand. Here we are with Trump threatening to wipe out value from balance sheets again. If the western world could get more economic influence on USA there would be a more secure economic situation.
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