PM Mark Carney's Canada

[afransen]

Chinese EVs wont be eligible for the $5K rebate. It is only available for vehicles made in a free trade partner country.

 

[EBT]

Chinese EVs wont be eligible for the $5K rebate. It is only available for vehicles made in a free trade partner country.

Chinese EVs won't need rebates because they will sell like hotcakes at their low price-points.

Almost every EV sold in Canada over the last 10 years have been American made. Only recently did Canada start building an EV model the Dodge Charger EV (haven't seen any on the streets yet). For over a decade Canadian taxpayers have subsidized to the tune of billions American made EVs from Tesla, Lucid, Rivian, GM, and Ford and look where that got us? Trump has taken a sledgehammer to our auto industry not only with tariffs but by granting tax deductions for interest on car loans but only if a car is made in the USA. It is insanity to be subsidizing any American made car and especially those made by Tesla.

 

[chrisw]

Infrastructure Minister confirms $5-billion cut to transit program, says cities have access to other funds

Gregor Robertson says municipalities have access to ‘tens of billions more’ through Build Communities Strong Fund announced in federal budget

www.theglobeandmail.com

Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson confirmed that the federal government is cutting $5-billion over 10 years to Ottawa’s key transfer program for municipal transit, but he says cities now have access to other funds as well.

The Infrastructure Minister has confirmed that the $30B Public Transit Fund will be cut to $25B.

“The Canada Public Transit Fund does go from thirty to twenty-five billion in the budget. That is guaranteed funding that is available to cities for public transit. And in addition to that, we have tens of billions more that’s accessible through the Build Communities Strong Fund,” he told reporters. “So that combination enables some more flexibility and more project-based funding.”

Mr. Robertson was referencing a new $51-billion fund, which was announced in the Nov. 4 budget and primarily involves existing programs that are being renamed and reprofiled.

The transit fund remains as a separate program.

I think this is a positive as there was some initial confusion whether the Public Transit Fund was being completely cannibalized by the $51B Build Communities Strong Fund.

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

^I think our media are more interested in the "Ah-ha!" clicks here...as in, government cutting something sells better than funding being moved to a newly announced program to better addresses similar needs.

 

[guavadelic]

Canada’s government is working to land a Chinese-Canadian auto plant that will export electric vehicles globally, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said.

She said Canadian auto parts firms such as Magna International Inc., Linamar Corp. and Martinrea International Inc. already have operations in China, and could participate in a joint-venture assembly plant in Canada.

“We believe that these great Canadian champions can partner with Chinese EV companies to make a Canadian-Chinese car to export it around the world,” Joly said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Friday.

Canada had previously said China was unfairly subsidizing its manufacturers, while security concerns have been raised over the vehicles’ technology.
“We can find a way to have software in the car that will address the security concerns,” she said. “We think we’re able to have labor standards that are in conformity with what we accept and expect in Canada, and that there can be local supply chains in Canada that are created out of these investments.”

Joly said there are “active conversations” on how domestic firms might complement new Chinese investment into Canada’s auto sector, including with software developer QNX, which is headquartered in Ottawa and owned by BlackBerry Ltd. On a recent trip to China, Joly met with Chinese auto firms BYD Co. Ltd., the world’s largest producer of EVs, and Chery Automobile Co.https://archive.is/o/YWuTB/https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/9973:HK

“I’ve already raised the fact with many Chinese companies that QNX is a state-of-the-art company that we could scale even more around the world,” she said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...enture-to-build-chinese-evs-for-global-export

 

[Full Metal Junkie]

I wonder if it makes sense for BYD to expand into Canada given how vertically integrated they are, from raw materials, to supply line and logistics.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I wonder if it makes sense for BYD to expand into Canada given how vertically integrated they are, from raw materials, to supply line and logistics.

They used to have a plant to make buses. Maybe they’ll come back.

BYD Opens First Canadian Bus Assembly Plant - Technological Innovations for a Better Life | BYD USA

BYD (Build Your Dreams) has expanded its North American operations with the opening of its first bus assembly plant in Canada. The 45,000-square-foot facility in Newmarket is the first new electric bus plant to open in Ontario in a generation. “We are dedicated to partnering with municipalities...

en.byd.com

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Carney constructs a mega anti-Trump trade alliance​

From https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-and-indo-pacific-blocs-eye-major-new-trade-pact/

The Canadian prime minister is spearheading discussions between the EU and a major Indo-Pacific trade bloc after calling on middle powers to join forces.

Two of the world’s biggest trading blocs are cautiously eyeing closer ties to short-circuit Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The European Union and a 12-nation Indo-Pacific bloc are opening talks to explore proposals to form one of the largest global economic alliances, multiple people with knowledge of the talks told POLITICO.

Canada is spearheading the discussions after Prime Minister Mark Carney called on middle powers to buck trade war coercion last month, days after Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Denmark’s European allies if it didn’t cede Greenland.


Ottawa is “championing efforts to build a bridge between the Trans-Pacific Partnership [CPTPP] and the European Union, which would create a new trading bloc of 1.5 billion people,” Carney told world leaders and the global business elite in Davos.


The middle powers are taking action. The EU and CPTPP are starting talks this year to strike an agreement to intertwine the supply chains of members like Canada, Singapore, Mexico, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Australia with Europe.


It would bring nearly 40 nations on opposite sides of the globe closer together with the aim of reaching a deal on so-called rules of origin.


These rules determine the economic nationality of a product. A deal would allow manufacturers throughout the two blocs to trade goods and their parts more seamlessly in a low-tariff process known as cumulation.

Earlier this month, Carney dispatched his personal representative to the European Union, John Hannaford, to Singapore to solicit the views of regional leaders on the potential deal.

“The work is definitely coming along,” a Canadian government official told POLITICO. “We’ve had very fruitful discussions on it with other partners around the world.” Like others in this story they were granted anonymity to discuss the preliminary talks.

Origin story​

The EU and the Indo-Pacific club, known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, resolved last November to combine their economic forces to push back on the fragmentation of free trade in the wake of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.

“We see a lot of value in increasing trade among the EU and CPTPP parties, which would also contribute to enhancing supply chain resilience,” a Japanese trade official said. An agreement on rules of origin “would be an interesting topic to explore,” they added, but a “concrete outcome may not be expected in the short term.”

“If the EU is up for the conversation, then of course it would make things very interesting indeed,” said a trade diplomat from another CPTPP nation.

Within the EU, some officials are “super keen” to pursue the cumulation deal, said a senior business representative briefed on their thinking.

While the deal “is indeed part of the broad scope of the EU-CPTPP cooperation,” an EU official confirmed, it is “not part of the priority for actions for now.” More immediate discussions prioritize “concrete outcomes,” they said, on bringing supply chains in the blocs closer together and bolstering trade diversification among their members.

Business buy-in​

Business groups throughout Europe, however, are growing louder in their support of the rules-of-origin deal and pushing Brussels and London to forge ahead. The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) and British Chambers of Commerce squarely support the pact.

Within the two blocs, these issues are “being discussed internally” but not yet in public, said Klemens Kober, director of trade policy, EU customs and transatlantic relations at the DIHK. “All relevant actors are looking at it.”

“If there can be a focus on having these rules as harmonized and simple as possible, as part of these negotiations, that could prove advantageous for German companies,” Kober said.

The EU has free trade deals with a majority of CPTPP members, including New Zealand, Japan, the U.K. and Canada, he pointed out. “Having the possibility of cumulating origin between different FTAs is very useful.”

“We hope that if that’s a success, if you can see tangible benefits in different areas, that could also entice other countries to join in and team up in a positive sense,” Kober added.

“So the more the merrier.”