Canada urged to help stem flood of Chinese EVs

Top Biden adviser calls for united front’ against cheap imports at Liberal retreat

- TONDA MACCHARLES

HALIFAX A top adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden urged Canada to consider heavily subsidized Chinese electric vehicles as not just an economic threat but as a security concern, and urged a united tariff front against cheap imports flooding the market.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke to reporters Sunday evening in Nova Scotia, where he met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet — in a surprise visit to the Liberal retreat — and ahead of a high-level visit Sullivan will make this week to Beijing.

“Canada will make its own determinations, but the U.S. does believe that a united front, a co-ordinated approach on these issues benefits all of us,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan’s remarks come as sources, speaking on background, told the Star the Liberal government is expected to announce this week, possibly as early as Monday, its long-delayed decision on whether to match the Americans in imposing import tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles after months of weighing the impact and potential fallout.

Biden’s adviser stopped short of calling on Canada to match U.S. tariffs that were hiked last May, but he noted that the EU has acted, and the G7 has made strong statements in support of the U.S. view.

Sullivan said the U.S. sees “two distinct challenges” connected with Chinese EVs: “Massive subsidies going into the Chinese electric vehicle industry have eliminated a level playing field, and so part of the economic response the U.S. has taken is responding to that.”