U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai applauded Canada on Thursday for its decision to slap high tariffs on some Chinese imports.
In a statement released by her office, Tai said Ottawa had taken “an important step toward ensuring workers and businesses can compete fairly in the electric vehicle, steel, and aluminum industries.”
The Canadian government has accused the Chinese regime of intentionally flooding the global electric vehicle (EV) market with excess supply and not maintaining rigorous labor and environmental standards.
The White House has also hiked tariffs on other Chinese imports, including semiconductors and batteries.
The Canadian government said it’s about to launch a 30-day consultation about measures on batteries, battery parts, semiconductors, solar products, and critical minerals from China.
Praising Canada’s decision, Tai said the new tariffs will protect workers and key industries from the Chinese regime’s “state-directed, unfair, and anti-competitive nonmarket policies and practices, which threaten the existence of our market-oriented industries.”
The U.S. trade chief also said Beijing has failed to uphold labor rights, enforce environmental protections, and promote fair, market-oriented competition.”
“I look forward to working with Minister Mary Ng as the United States and Canada continue, on the basis of our shared values as market democracies, to promote North American jobs, investment and prosperity, and to defend our workers from the unfair, non-market actions,” she said.
Speaking one day before Trudeau’s announcement, Sullivan highlighted the European Union’s decision to apply tariffs on Chinese EVs and the G7’s concerns about Chinese overcapacity, which Chinese leader Xi Jinping previously denied.
The European Commission has announced interim tariffs on battery EV (BEV) imports from China following an eight-month investigation that found “the BEV value chain in China benefits from unfair subsidisation, which is causing a threat of economic injury to EU BEV producers.”
The rates were initially set between 17.4 percent and 37.6 percent. Last week, the bloc said it intends to revise them down to between 17 percent and 36.3 percent.
The European Commission is expected to conclude its anti-subsidy investigation with final decisions accounted for by November.
Earlier this month, the Chinese regime contested the European Union’s interim decision and requested a consultation with the World Trade Organization (WTO) on whether it was in compliance with global trade rules.
In response, the European Commission said the complaint won’t affect its ongoing probe of Chinese subsidies and that it is “confident of the WTO-compatibility of its investigation and provisional measures.”
In July, U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador unveiled measures to close loopholes that allow Mexico to become a backdoor for Chinese steel and aluminum products to enter the United States.
Under the plan, Mexico is requiring importers to provide more information about the country of origin of steel products, while only products melted and poured in Mexico will qualify for tariff-free export to the United States.
The announcement followed Mexico’s increase of tariffs on a range of products, including steel and aluminum, imported from China and other countries that do not have a Free Trade Agreement with Mexico.
