China Understands ‘Divisions' in Canada, Pitting Region Against Region With Targeted Tariffs: Alberta Premier Smith

Epoch Times

19-05-2025

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says China is exploiting 'divisions' in Canada by responding to Ottawa's electric vehicle tariffs—which primarily impact industries in Eastern Canada—by imposing tariffs on canola products, which are produced primarily in the West.
'I can only interpret that as the Chinese understand the divisions in our country. They understand that if you're going to retaliate and create maximum pressure, you do it by pitting one region against the other,' Smith said at a
The premier said Ottawa's
'The unfortunate consequence of that is that we now have a 100 percent tariff on vehicles nobody really wants in Canada—because I don't think there's a massive amount of demand for Chinese electric vehicles—to protect an electric vehicle industry in Canada that doesn't yet exist because those investments haven't been made,' she said.
'And the consequence of that is the Chinese retaliation has been against the products everybody does want, which is pork and canola.'
China's retaliatory tariffs, which took effect on March 20,
Related Stories
5/17/2025
5/2/2025
Smith said the impact of Chinese tariffs on Canada's agricultural communities is 'massive,' adding that
The federal government had
'We would never be a back door to cheap Chinese vehicle[s] which are overly subsidized and where they don't respect labour law and environmental laws,' then-Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in March, following Beijing's retaliation.
Demand for electric vehicles in Canada has been declining. According to Statistics Canada's recent data, EV sales in March
A drop in sales has also led to some auto manufacturers
Trade Relationships
Smith noted Canada's relationship with China has not returned to the state it was in before the arbitrary detention of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor by Beijing, which spanned from 2018 to 2021.
The two men were detained on espionage charges just days after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou over a U.S. extradition warrant for fraud. Both spent nearly three years in Chinese prisons before being released in a deal that saw Meng allowed to return to China.
Appearing on CTV News' Power Play on May 15, Kovrig
Kovrig also warned that Beijing is seeking to dominate global supply chains by controlling critical minerals and advanced technology, including artificial intelligence (AI).
In the May 16 press conference, Smith said the United States is 'very
'[The Americans] understand that if China gets the dominance over North America, it's going to really change the way the world operates,' she said.
The premier suggested that besides the 'AI battle,' the 'economic battle' the United States is engaging in with China currently will influence how Ottawa shapes its relationships with Washington and Beijing in the future.
'I think that the Americans, as part of a condition to getting access to their market, are increasingly going to be asking for restrictions on how much trade we do with China,' she said, citing the steel and aluminum sector and the auto industry as examples.
Smith said her government is seeking to better understand the evolving dynamics of Canada-U.S. relations through her province's
'This is a different kind of conversation than we might have had a year ago, but it's a very important one for us to have to understand how do we maintain the preferential relationship with the United States, still find new markets, but ... find the balance so that we don't have to sacrifice one over the other.'
Carolina Avendano and Olivia Gomm contributed to this report.