Omoda E5 electric cars manufactured by Chinese automaker Chery are unloaded from a cargo ship at the Royal Portbury Dock, near Bristol, south west Britain, on Sept. 5. In a new poll, 43 per cent of Canadians said they support a tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles.Toby Melville/Reuters
Nearly two-thirds of Canadians show some level of support for Ottawa’s plan to add a 100-per-cent tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles, a new poll has found.
The survey by Nanos Research for The Globe and Mail found 43 per cent of Canadians say they support the tariff, while 20 per cent say they somewhat support the measure.
Ten per cent of respondents polled said they oppose the tariff and 17 per cent said they somewhat oppose it.
Late last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada’s decision to impose the 100-per-cent import tariff on Chinese electric vehicles. The EV tariff applies to some hybrid passenger cars, trucks, buses and delivery vans. It is in addition to a pre-existing import tariff of 6.1 per cent that applies to Chinese-made EVs coming into Canada.
Mr. Trudeau’s announcement followed a similar move by U.S. President Joe Biden in May. It has prompted a debate over whether protecting Canadian jobs should be a public-policy priority over the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by allowing greater consumer access to lower-cost Chinese electric vehicles.
The federal government also announced last month that a 25-per-cent tariff on steel and aluminum products from China at the time. Both decisions are to take effect in early October.
In its polling, Nanos found Canadians 55 and older were more likely to support the tariff on Chinese-made EVs (52 per cent support, 22 per cent somewhat support) than younger Canadians aged 18 to 34 (33 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively.)
The survey found that 38 per cent of Canadians say price is the most important factor in their decision to buy an electric vehicle, while 8 per cent saying the vehicle being made in Canada is most important. Just over four in ten Canadians do not think their neighbour would be willing to pay a premium to purchase an electric vehicle if it was made in Canada, with 48 per cent saying they were unsure.
Nanos conducted a phone and online random survey of 1,093 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, between Aug. 30 and Sept. 2 as part of an omnibus survey. The margin of error for this survey is three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.