Without a doubt, I feel conflicted on the issue too, and there are definitely a lot of layers and complexities to consider. My distilled 2-sentence conclusion is exactly what I wrote earlier, and unfortunately it doesn't cover the full extent of all the considerations that goes into coming to that conclusion.
Without writing a full dissertation, the impacts of climate change, large scale layoffs and the associated impact on economy, gov attitudes towards such impacts, disproportionate amounts of EV subsidies between the Chinese and Canadian gov, competition between state-sponsored industry vs private enterprises, etc., the decimation of domestic industrial / manufacturing capabilities, and the associated transfer of this industrial capacity to an untrustworthy trade partner / hostile state -- all these factors argue in favour of or against imposing tariffs on China-made EVs. Ultimately, I feel like imposing the tariff is the less undesirable course of action among a range of less-than-ideal options.
So criticism against the tariff policy is definitely warranted, but the issue is so much more than a binary black and white choice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikemhg
Sure, but the problem is politicians want to say climate change is an existential threat to our existence.
If so, does protecting a segment of the market (American car manufacturers, and by extension Canadian) warrant the artificial raising of EV car prices potentially out of reach of many Canadians, and thus stagnating the overall adoption of EVs from ICE vehicles?
If a meteor was flying to Earth and we were all going to die in a year or two, would we be arguing about which country gets the contract and funding to destroy the damn thing?
It's these types of tariffs on affordable EVs is what makes these politician's doom and gloom scenarios about climate change and mandated EV adoption by 2035 seem so damn hallow.
|