Canada announced earlier this week that it will impose a 100% import tariff on electric vehicles made in China. But before the announcement came, EV maker Tesla attempted to secure an exception.
According to a report by Reuters, Tesla approached the Canadian government and asked for lower import tariffs on its EVs made in its factory in Shanghai, China. At the moment, the only Chinese-made EVs imported in Canada are the Tesla Model 3 compact sedan and the Tesla Model Y crossover.
Tesla previously made a similar request to the European Union and was successful. The EU imposed an import tariff of 36.3% on EVs made in China but gave Tesla a break with a lower rate of 9%.
It appears that Canada wasn’t interested in giving Tesla the same treatment as the EU, at least not at the moment. The 100% import tariff is currently scheduled to come into effect on October 1.
Canada’s move follows the same reasoning as similar decisions previously made by the United States and EU. The EV makers in China get large subsidies from the government, which allows them to sell their products at significantly lower prices than EV makers in other countries. This comes with a risk of disrupting global fair trade, something that Canada, the US, and the EU are hoping to prevent with high import tariffs.