Should Canada kill its EV mandate in order to entice Trump to back off of his steel and aluminum tariffs?
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When Canadians voted for Mark Carney last fall, it was based on one single, solitary premise: that, as the former governor of the Banks of Canada and England, Mr. Carney would be better — that should be read “tougher” — at facing off with Donald Trump than Pierre Poilievre. “Elbows up!” became a national rallying cry — thank you, Mike Myers! — uniting, for the first time in what seems like eons, virtually all of Canada to a singular cause.
Unfortunately, like most Liberal promises, we seem to have been sold a bill of goods. We may have voted for Gordie Howe; what we got was Guy Lafleur. First, we capitulated on the Digital Services Tax. More recently, nearly all of our retaliatory tariffs were quietly lifted. Now, it may be the automotive industry’s turn to suffer Carney’s wimpy side.
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Here’s how that might work.
For months now, it’s been common knowledge that the American administration has been putting pressure on the Canadian federal government to rescind our EV mandate. Fair enough; the 2035 deadline for the complete elimination of internal-combustion was unworkable when it was introduced, and, given the recent softening of electric vehicle sales, it’s become even more fanciful. It always needed replacing or modifying. Perhaps a little pressure from our Yankee friends — who seem to have developed a real hate-on for anything battery-powered — might force us into a more realistic policy to curb GHG emissions.
Behind the scenes, however, something more nefarious is happening. According to sources, the Americans want more than just a simple watering-down of Canada’s Electric Vehicle Availability Standard. Instead, it appears what’s being promoted is a complete adoption of the Trump administration’s latest emissions dictums, which are, essentially, no standards at all.
I’ll not go into all the details here — that’s for a future Motor Mouth where we lay out a detailed ZEV plan — but the Trump administration seems to be trying to gut virtually all American automotive emissions standards. For instance, the Environmental Protection Agency is looking to “delist” GHGs as a pollutant. If the EPA’s ability to regulate GHG gasses is rescinded, the climate rules in the Clean Air Act that former President Biden used to call for a 50% reduction in tailpipe emissions by 2032 would be gone.  
But that’s not all. The Trump government is also said to be looking at dialing back restrictions on so-called “criteria” emissions (the carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, and NOx emissions that so polluted our atmosphere before the EPA stepped in); is considering loosening America’s CAFE fleet fuel consumption standards; and has already eliminated penalties for automakers not meeting their previous fleet fuel economy requirements. Trump’s America, at least when it comes to cars, would seem to be a regulatory free-for-all.
And these are the policies that Canada is being encouraged to adopt. Automakers — especially those native to America — have long struggled to make their truck-heavy fleets compliant with ever-tighter regulation of tailpipe emissions. Hence why the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association — which represents Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis — calls for the “alignment of Canada and U.S. vehicle emission and greenhouse gas standards,” something Daniel Breton, president and CEO of Electric Mobility Canada, likens to “turning back emissions regulation 20 years.”
That’s what the Americans want. One of the possible carrots in this negotiation might be a removal of the 50% tariffs that are bedevilling our aluminum and steel industries. Lower your emissions standards sufficiently and we’ll drop those nasty metal tariffs, goes the riff. To the steel and aluminum industries, it must sound like manna from heaven.
For the auto industry, however, it makes no sense whatsoever. For one thing, as long as Trump keeps that 50% levy on metals coming into the United States, there’s little chance that automakers will relocate their assembly plants to the Continental 48. Think about it: every metal part built from imported metal — from an aluminum cylinder head to a steel body panel — now sees its raw materials cost increased by half. That could well make the production of automotive parts — and the cars they go into — in the U.S. more expensive than here in the Great White Frozen North.
Indeed, Trump’s implementation of aluminum and steel tariffs are so counter-productive that it might be preventing many Japanese and European automakers from relocating their manufacturing hubs to the U.S. The following is a gross oversimplification of the calculations, but the question to most of those automakers being challenged to relocate their production to the U.S. is which is more expensive: paying 15% on the whole car they ship from their home country, as the Japanese and Europeans are being asked; or paying 50% extra for much of the raw material that goes into that same car’s parts.
The Trump government is looking at dialing back restrictions on ‘criteria’ emissions; is considering loosening America’s CAFE fleet fuel consumption standards; and has eliminated penalties for automakers not meeting their fleet fuel economy requirements—and these are the policies Canada is being encouraged to adopt
Motor Mouth had a little expert help in working out some back-of-the-napkin calculations that came to conclusion that, if you had already set up USMCA-compliant manufacturing infrastructure in the United States, you might indeed save a few points on the overall cost by relocating to America. But if, like some automakers, you aren’t USMCA-compliant, then setting up all that infrastructure and paying for those raw materials doesn’t make any financial sense. You’re better off staying home and paying the tariff.
It’s also worth noting that, as it stands, even those who come out ahead in that price comparison might well prove reluctant to make the migration for such meagre pennies on the dollar. After all, it’s tough to see any foreign automaker choosing to employ American autoworkers rather than their homegrown — that should be read “heavily unionized” — employees for just a couple of percentage points. Better to just pay whatever tithes Trump might demand and go about your business. Indeed, this whole tariffing of raw materials thing would seem so silly, it’s unlikely to last very long.
Which is why Mr. Carney shouldn’t make any concessions — if indeed that’s in the cards — to remove those steel and aluminum tariffs. Eventually the “stable genius” will figure out that whatever he gains from the steel and aluminum industries isn’t worth sacrificing his ambitions for a more robust American auto industry. Indeed, I suspect that, if there’s a trade negotiation too sensitive to discuss in public, it’s that those steel and aluminum tariffs are actually helping keep foreign autoworkers — including Canadians — employed.
A couple of conclusions stick out from all this incredible complication. First, no matter what you might think of EV mandates — and Motor Mouth is no fan, especially as they are currently written — taking a knife to tailpipe-emissions standards is not a wise move. And, while Trump’s aluminum and steel restrictions may be a major roadblock to enticing more foreign automakers to relocate to America, those same tariffs — raising the cost of producing a car in the United States as they do — might be Canada’s best defence against our homegrown automakers migrating southward.
Sad to say it, Mr. Carney, but the best chance you’ve got for keeping automakers in Canada — especially those lobbying you so fervently to harmonize with Trump’s standards — might be to not bargain those tariffs away.

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David Booth is Driving’s senior writer as well as the producer of Driving.ca’s Driving into the Future panels and Motor Mouth podcasts. Having written about everything from the exact benefits of Diamond Like Coating (DLC) on motorcycle camshafts to why Range Rovers are the best vehicles for those suffering from opioid-induced constipation, Booth leaves no stone unturned in his quest for automotive veritas. Besides his long tenure with Driving, he was the editor in chief of Autovision magazine for 25 years and his stories have been published in motorcycle magazines around the world including the United States, England, Germany and Australia.
Graduating from Queen Elizabeth High School in 1973, Booth moved from his Northern Quebec hometown of Sept-Iles — also home to Montreal Canadiens great, Guy Carbonneau — to Ottawa to study Mechanical Engineering at Carleton University. There, he wrote a thesis on the then-burgeoning technology of anti-lock brakes for motorcycles and spent time researching the also then-burgeoning use of water tunnels for aerodynamic testing.
After three years writing for Cycle Canada magazine and another three working for the then oldest magazine in Canada, Canadian Automotive Trade, Booth, along with current Driving writer Brian Harper and then Toronto Star contributor Alex Law, created an automotive editorial services group that supplied road tests, news, and service bulletins to what was then called Southam newspapers.
When Southam became Postmedia with its purchase by Conrad Black and the subsequent introduction of the National Post, Booth was asked to start up the then Driver’s Edge section, which became Driving.ca when Postmedia moved into the digital age. In the past 41 years, Booth has tested well over 500 motorcycles, 1,500 passenger cars, and nearly every significant supercar of the last 30 years. His passion — and proudest achievement — is Motor Mouth, his weekly column that, after some 30 years, remains as incisive and opinionated as ever.
Booth remains an avid sports enthusiast — read: fitness freak — whose favorite activities include punching boxing bags until his hands bleed and running ski hills with as little respect for the medial meniscus as 65-year-old knees can bear. His true passion, however, remains motorcycles. If he’s not in his garage tinkering with his prized 1983 CB1100RC — or resurrecting another one — he’s riding Italy’s famed Stelvio Pass with his beloved — and much-modified — Suzuki V-Strom 1000.
Booth has been known to accept the occasional mojito from strangers, and the apples of his eye are a certain fellow Driving contributor and his son, Matthew, who is Global Vice-President of something — though he’s never quite sure what. He welcomes feedback, criticism and suggestions at David@davebooth.ca.
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