The agreement will lead to unfair competition and the erosion of Canada’s industrial base: Michael Kovrig.

By Laura Dhillon Kane, published by Bloomberg News

In Brief by Probe International

Michael Kovrig, the former Canadian diplomat who survived nearly three years of arbitrary detention in China, has issued a blunt alarm to Canada: Prime Minister Mark Carney’s deal to flood the country with cut-rate Chinese electric vehicles is not trade—it’s a strategic surrender. By slashing tariffs on EVs from a regime that weaponizes economic dependence, Canada is deliberately hollowing out its own industrial base, overwhelming domestic manufacturers, and binding its critical supply chains to an aggressive, coercive superpower that has already proved it will kidnap Canadian citizens the moment Ottawa displeases it.

Kovrig warns Canada could fast track to the same fate as Australia—the collapse of its auto-manufacturing sector to the rise of imported Chinese EVs, beholden to a hostile state that views interdependence as just another lever for domination. Kovrig’s warning is crystal clear: deeper entanglement with China risks peril not opportunity, and is “not a solution to most of our problems with the U.S.”

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