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François-Philippe Champagne told Canadians in May 2024 that the country would “never” serve as a backdoor for Chinese EVs into North America.
He repeated the pledge in August, October, December, and again in March 2025.
Eighteen months later, as Canada’s Finance Minister, Champagne returned from a four-day trade mission to Beijing where he promoted deeper economic ties with the country whose vehicles he had vowed to keep out.
Canada’s 100% surtax on Chinese-made EVs — which Champagne helped design and publicly championed — was replaced in January with a quota allowing 49,000 vehicles per year at a 6.1% tariff.
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Champagne’s public opposition to Chinese EV imports began on May 17, 2024 ... “Canada has never been and will never be a backdoor for China in the North American market ... it’s fair to say that everything is on the table to protect our industry and our workers.”
At the time, Ottawa had committed tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to attract EV manufacturing from Honda Motor Co., Stellantis, and Volkswagen Group.
Champagne framed cheap Chinese imports as an existential threat to those investments.
On August 26, ... Champagne ... cited 550,000 direct and indirect jobs in Canada’s auto supply chain. “This is about securing the fair, prosperous future Canadians deserve,” he said.
In the government’s October 1 implementation notice, he said Ottawa was “taking further action to protect Canadian workers from China’s unfair, non-market practices” and pledged to foster domestic EV supply chains “from mining critical minerals to manufacturing batteries and vehicles right here at home.”
On October 18, he posted on X: “Tariffs on EVs, steel, and aluminum from China ensure a fair and competitive environment for everyone. But, we also know our businesses need time to adjust their supply chains away from Chinese products.”
The language signalled structural decoupling.
By December 2024, he was still on message, warning on X that “if you say no to Canada you are basically saying yes to China” on strategic supply chains.
As late as March 12, 2025 — ten months before the deal that reversed the tariff — Champagne was asked by CTV News whether Canada would soften its position.
“We’re not. Not with respect to the tariffs that we put because there was a good reason,” he said. “We will say we would never be a back door to cheap Chinese vehicles which are overly subsidized and where they don’t respect labour law and environmental laws.”
He added: “We want to protect our industry. We want to protect our workers. We want to protect our communities. And the reason why we impose the tariff still remains very valid today.”
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Champagne visited the Chinese capital from Tuesday to Saturday last week ... When asked directly whether he had raised the issue of forced labour or human rights with his Chinese counterparts, [Champagne said], “We did speak about supply chain integrity. That was a core message. Canada puts a lot of importance on supply chain integrity and that our bilateral trade needs to be conducted in accordance with international standards.”
He did not use the words “forced labour” or “human rights” in his answer.
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The vocabulary had changed. “Supply chain integrity” replaced “forced labour.” “International standards” replaced “Chinese labour abuses” while engagement “with eyes wide open” replaced “never a backdoor.”
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The forced labour issue that Champagne navigated carefully in Beijing has intensified since his return.
On Wednesday, Canada’s auto manufacturing lobby seized on fresh allegations against BYD to renew its opposition to the Chinese automaker’s market entry.
Days after Brazilian authorities added BYD to a government blacklist over what labour inspectors described as “slavery-like” conditions at a factory in Camaçari, Bahia, an upcoming report by New York-based China Labor Watch found similar conditions at BYD‘s Hungarian plant in Szeged.
CVMA President Brian Kingston called the findings “deeply concerning.”
Speaking with CBC, he said: “Canada’s auto industry can compete and win, but the playing field must be level.”
It is the same argument Champagne made in 2024 to justify the tariff he now administers the reversal of.
