Canada Slashes Stellantis, GM Tariff-free Car Imports
Canada announced Thursday it was reducing tariff-free import quotas for carmakers Stellantis and General Motors in response to their moves to scale back manufacturing in the country.
Ottawa is reducing the annual quota eligible for tariff relief by 24.2 percent for GM and 50 percent for Stellantis, the Canadian finance ministry said.
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Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a statement that his government was "deeply disappointed" with the two companies.
"These unacceptable decisions are in contravention of their legal obligations to Canada and the Canadian workers, which is why we are reducing their import remission quotas," he said.
Last week, European maker Stellantis announced plans to increase its activities in the U.S. by moving the production of the Jeep Compass from Canada's Ontario to Illinois.
On Tuesday, GM announced it would abandon production of BrightDrop electric delivery vans north of the border, citing insufficient demand.
Champagne, the Canadian minister, said the government "will not hesitate to take strong action to protect" the auto industry, which employs approximately 125,000 people, most of them in Ontario.
Last year, Canada produced around 1.3 million cars. Of these, 1.1 million were exported to the U.S.