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Eliot Chen

Oct 20, 2026

1:53
Can you give us a very high-level overview of Canada's divergence from its southern neighbor on the EV issue?
1:59
So I think in order to understand what's going on in Canada with Chinese EVs right now, you have to go back to at least two years ago.
2:09
So around the time of 2024, the Biden administration at the time and the Liberal government under Justin Trudeau in Canada were very much aligned on many things on foreign policy, particularly on China.
2:24
And at the time, when the US was seeing the emergence of the Chinese electric vehicle industry and its growing exports abroad, the US imposed 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.
2:39
And very quickly after that, Canada basically moved in lockstep and did so as well.
2:44
Then everything changed.
2:47
Of course, Donald Trump was elected and started threatening to invade and annex Canada.
4:15
What has happened to all the pushback against Chinese EVs that was there in the first place? Protecting domestic industry, for example, or the need for alignment with the United States? Are these things still concerns for Canadian policymakers?

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