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Nearly two-thirds of Canadians support tariff on Chinese-made EVs, poll finds
(www.theglobeandmail.com)
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In the 1980s, faced with a crisis of their own making, Harley went crying to Ronald Reagan for tariffs on imported bikes. Reagan, free-market champion that he was, obliged.
This resulted in
Basically, it set Harley up for failure and nutured mediocrity.
Tariffs, if they don't come with government pressure on the industry being protected, are basically corporate welfare that helps in the short term but results in long-term pain.
EVs will be similar. Protecting the North American industry in the short term isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it would require the American and Canadian government to bust the balls of Ford, GM and Stellantis, as well as the domestic-produced imports: you get the tariffs and you get tax breaks, but in turn you have three years to produce a cheap, capable EV or, eg, we'll make it happen without you.
Our governments won't do this because they're neoliberal chickenshits who lost their spine forty years ago.
The result will be EVs that are too expensive, sold to the most profitable niche domestically, with collapsing sales abroad. Which is what we have now, and it will get worse if we insulate lazy OEMs from market pressure.
China's hands are not clean, but one thing they have done is invest in the long term. The North American OEMs resolutely refuse to do that, and tariffs would make that situation worse.
Thank you