This year, the West will fight China in the epic electric-vehicle trade war – Globe and Mail

Standing back and looking at today’s global trading picture, one can see that it’s not pretty – destabilized by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, by the unsettled multilateral situation at the World Trade Organization and by innumerable regional trade disputes.

Most important among the issues, though, is the looming clash between the West and China over electric vehicles (EVs), which is set to dominate this year’s trade agenda.

This fight is shaping up to be an epic battle, covering a wide swath of minerals critical to EV production and with implications reaching deep into national decarbonization policies and supply chains, not only for the Canadian automotive industry but for a large array of businesses…

Daniel Schwanen — Preparing Ontario SMEs for supply chains of the future: Part 2

To: Canadians concerned about small business growth amidst reconfiguration of supply chains From: Daniel Schwanen Re: Preparing Ontario SMEs for supply chains of the future – getting the big picture right – II Date: December 22, 2023 My previous Intelligence Memo focused on the overarching importance for Ontario’s economy of being home to firms that […]

Daniel Schwanen — Preparing Ontario SMEs for the supply chains of the future: Part 1

To: Canadians concerned about small business growth amidst reconfiguration of supply chains From: Daniel Schwanen Re: Preparing Ontario SMEs for supply chains of the future – getting the big picture right Date: December 22, 2023 While supply chain challenges of the pandemic era and its immediate aftermath seem to have abated at the global level, […]

Putting Together a Holiday Dinner Basket

We at the C.D. Howe Institute wish you a happy holiday season. We also wish we could wish you an affordable one. We asked how big a bite a holiday dinner for ten would take out of the average weekly wage of a worker in Canada, Australia, the UK and the United States. The painful answer is […]

Jon Johnson – CUSMA and Dairy – Round Two

From:  Jon Johnson To:  Canadian Trade Watchers Date:  December 11, 2023 Re:  CUSMA and Dairy – Round Two Shortly after CUSMA came into effect in 2020, the US challenged Canadian practices in administering the tariff rate quotas (TRQs) for the 14 dairy products that comprise Canada’s dairy supply management system. Under a TRQ, a limited […]

Peter Hall – India: Opportunity Lost?

From: Peter Hall To: International trade watchers Date:  December 6, 2023 Re: India: Opportunity Lost? It couldn’t be happening. Years of careful and painstaking cultivation of political, cultural and business relations with India suddenly seem in tatters. A G20 summit in New Delhi in September where Canada seemed to be sidelined, followed by shocking and very public […]

Lawrence Herman – Canada’s Digital Tax Ship Still Sails Even as Rollout is Delayed

From: Lawrence Herman To: Canadian trade observers Date: November 28, 2023 Re: Canada’s Digital Tax Ship Still Sails Even as Rollout is Delayed The Fall Economic Statement confirmed the federal government’s intention to eventually proceed with its Digital Services Tax (DST), a measure proposed back in 2020, even as it postponed its January 1 implementation. Under the proposal, Ottawa […]

John Weekes – Making Supply Management Untouchable Would be a Big Mistake

From: John Weekes To: The Senate of Canada Date: October 13, 2023 Re: Making supply management untouchable would be a big mistake There are three major negative impacts embedded in Bill C-282, a trade bill awaiting Senate approval that would prevent Canadian trade negotiators from ever ceding any ground on supply management. First, gratuitously removing dairy, poultry and its […]

Lawrence Herman – Foreign Agents Registry – Don’t Dither

From: Lawrence Herman To: Foreign interference observers Date: October 11, 2023 Re: Foreign Agents Registry – Don’t Dither We still do not know when the Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Canada’s elections, presided over by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, will start up, how much will be in public and the particular aspects it will examine first. From the terms of […]

Jon Johnson – Current Republican Thoughts on Trade

From: Jon Johnson To: Canadian Trade Watchers Date: September 28, 2023 Re: Current Republican Thoughts on Trade On August 22, former President Trump proposed a “universal baseline tariff” of 10 percent on virtually all imports to the United States. The rationale: “When companies come in and they dump their products in the United States, they […]

Lawrence Herman – Only the Senate Can Rescue us from the Latest Dairy Power Play

From: Lawrence Herman To: Canadians concerned about trade Date: August 30, 2023 Re: Only the Senate Can Rescue us from the Latest Dairy Power Play Bill C-282 is a terrible piece of legislation. Yet it sailed through the House of Commons and is now in the Senate, the last hope for bringing some sanity to the matter. Indications are […]

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