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Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

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Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Designed means exactly that I meant ... designed (meant to) ... > All of this to show you that my understanding of the work [sic] designed is correct. All right, I see what's going on here. You just don't know what the word designed means. To illustrate: if went to the hardware store to buy a claw hammer and meant to use it to murder someone, which you then did, does that mean the claw hammer was "designed" to murd…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring

Sorry, no. Being sloppy and saying clearly false things helps no one.

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Designed means exactly that I meant ... designed (meant to) ... > All of this to show you that my understanding of the work [sic] designed is correct. All right, I see what's going on here. You just don't know what the word designed means. To illustrate: if went to the hardware store to buy a claw hammer and meant to use it to murder someone, which you then did, does that mean the claw hammer was "designed" to murd…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring

Sure, if the red herring is the sloppiness that distracts from what's actually going on, and then digging in to defend that (e.g. the clearly false statements about "design").

But it's not a red herring to insist on not being sloppy. Saying false things helps no one.

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean Canada's largest trading partner is the US, which also has many examples of large scale human right abuses. As a Canadian, it's not really relevant to me that a country we trade with isn't liberal, and I don't agree with the premise that China is inheriently anti-west. Anti-western values, yes, but China does not threaten west violently in anyway that I can see. They mostly threaten western dominance economica…

> in the US, which also has many examples of large scale human right abuses. Excuse me? Citation is needed here for present day human rights abuses in the US. > Canada should just do what's best for its citizen, which is get good trade deals, and ensure that our values don't morph into something unrecognizable. What other countries do in their own borders is largely irrelevant. It’s extremely relevant, if you believe…

Sure, just a few examples off the top of my head:

- Abortion bans in the US constitute abuses of female reproductive rights and affect millions: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/08/usa-abortion-...

- The Iraq War, in my opinion: https://www.ecchr.eu/en/publication/the-iraq-invasion-is-a-c...

- Guantánamo Bay: https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/08/29/us-migrants-face-abuse-i... & https://www.amnesty.org.uk/guantanamo-bay-human-rights

- Yemen, broadly: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/10/yemen-us-air-...

- Depending on who you ask, you could also point to large-scale violations of the rights of migrants and asylum seekers, as well as the over-policing of minority populations.

The US also does not consistently uphold the same values that you say liberal democracies should. It does business with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and others.

As for your second point:

“It’s extremely relevant. If you believe in personal liberties and democracy, you should only do business with societies that uphold personal liberties and democracy. It’s that simple.”

I would ask, why? I believe in personal liberties and democracy for my people, my community, and my country. If another country’s population does not hold those beliefs as a majority, why is that my concern? If we truly restricted trade only to countries that share our beliefs, our list of trading partners would be very small. What would the benefit be?

Additionally, given your request for citations, I suspect we would disagree significantly on which countries actually reflect our values. I am not sure we could arrive at a consistent list of partners that share our values. For example, I do not believe the USA has a strong democracy. It has a rather weak one. Should it be excluded as well?

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#524
I remember renting a house once and the gas water heater went out. The landlord replaced it... with another cheap-ass gas water heater with a pilot light.

"they're more reliable" he said

maybe he's right, but it definitely used more gas which he didn't pay for.

EDIT: oh wait, we had a gas heater problem too. It wouldn't heat the house. (same landlord) When the service guy came over, he tried working on it, but eventually threw a huge fit. this is a piece of crap, it is the original heater from the house, too old and decrepit to get going again. You just have to replace it.

I think the service guy was actually a decent, upstanding guy and he knew what he was doing.

Landlord put in a new heating system, and lo and behold... the house actually got warm easily and the gas bill dropped over half.

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That just shows dollar amounts, with no sense of what's being sold. Being that so many companies have moved production to China to make their products cheaper, I'd be curious as to what then comprises those savings.

China hasn't been cheap for ages. Mexican labor is way cheaper both in manufacturing (20% less) and engineering (40 % less). I'll quote you the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook himself on that topic: The number one reason why we like to be in China is the people. China has moved into very advanced manufacturing, so you find in China the intersection of craftsman kind of skill, and sophisticated robotics and the computer scienc…

I recall Tim Cook's quote and it has merit.

But the ecosystem (like all ecosystems) evolves as all the entities within it evolve. Originally it was cheap labor. I think the key difference is that each entity in the US is independent and self-focused on quarterly earnings (as the C-Suite is rewarded by that and they call the shots), whereas China thinks holistically as far as how the nation moves ahead as a whole.

tl;dr our priorities have been reversed -- profit vs people vs vice versa.

https://itimanufacturing.com/manufacturing-move-china/

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#526
post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's poorly worded, but the rest of the article implies that's average lifespan , not average age . “The average car lifespan now is closer to 322,000 kilometres, which works out to around 10 to 12 years for most drivers.” “While the average vehicle in Canada may be designed to last around a decade, there are several factors, some of which are within your control and some of which are not, that can impact how long yo…

Assuming Canada uses salt in the winter in the same amounts as the Northern US, rust will eat the car before the mechanicals wear out. My last two cars succumbed to rust at a little over 20 years of age yet were still reliable, started easily and ran well.

Depends on province; ON loves salt (salt mines and auto manufacturing go hand in hand?).

AB uses grit and brine, I see lots of older cars driving around here (in good shape excluding windshields).

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#527
post #234

A Canadian satire site has the headline "Canada chooses lawful evil over chaotic evil": * https://thebeaverton.com/2026/01/canada-chooses-lawful-evil-... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_(Dungeons_%26_Dragon... Edit: A comment in /r/canada: > TBF I would much rather work for Lex Luthor than The Joker if I had to choose one.

That's basically it. The Chinese government views the rest of the world through Hobbesian self interest, but in the late 20th century financial way. They want your money, but lawfully. The US has turned into something much more vindictive and unpredictable, including threatening to invade Canada.

The Chinese government’s territorial claims in the South China Sea show near-total disregard for international law. China has constructed heavily militarized artificial islands roughly 200 kilometers from the Philippine coast — and more than 1,000 kilometers from the Chinese mainland — in order to assert control over waters that, under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and a binding 2016 ruling by an international arbitral tribunal, lie squarely within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. China lost the case on the merits and simply rejected the ruling.

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#528
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's basically it. The Chinese government views the rest of the world through Hobbesian self interest, but in the late 20th century financial way. They want your money, but lawfully. The US has turned into something much more vindictive and unpredictable, including threatening to invade Canada.

>The US has turned into something much more vindictive and unpredictable, including threatening to invade Canada. The thing about China is that they are basically hard on the up slope of their advancement as a society/economy/nation, just like US was post ww2. US on the other hand, has flatlined to the point where we think stuff like trans athletes in sports are a drastic enough reason to elect a president who is a c…

>US on the other hand, has flatlined to the point where we think stuff like trans athletes in sports are a drastic enough reason to elect a president who is a convicted Felon.

This is very one-sided and unfair. The trans stuff is indicative of a larger social movement. For example, in the U.S., it would be illegal to use IQ tests to hire employees while in China, that's practiced. China is far more meritocratic. The U.S. is driven far more by ideology, and the trans stuff is an example of that.

And someone on the other side of the aisle would point to the prosecution of Donald Trump as politically motivated, where opponents found an obscure law that he violated and charged him with 34 counts based on the 34 forms he submitted with the expense mislabelling.

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#529
post #299
post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan did the same in the 70s/80s while growing their homegrown tech companies, over time it seems they've been forgiven. In the end we all benefitted with better products from Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Nikon, and many others.

IP and copyrights slow progress, their expiration should be greatly limited

I very much agree. Technology moves far too fast in this century for companies, who will only need to invest less as AI improves, to have a monopoly over things that would inevitably (or were already) also being developed. It made sense when you invested 20 years into the research for a thing, back when that was necessary due to the slower pace. People had to travel places more often, spent more time doing so, communications took longer, and generally everything took significantly more time. Those policies served companies well in the last century. These days a grad student tested something on a weekend, a professor viewed the results in the morning and a reaction is already in progress. It simply isn’t reasonable anymore; they should have a right to recoup a reasonable costs, of course, paying off their investment. When that investment becomes a company worth more than at least 50% of the others, maybe they should need to compete more, not less? Make them innovate to maintain customers rather than simply sit on their patents. Just an opinion, but I believe that internal competition will only help us innovate.

Re: Canada slashes 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs to 6%

#530

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The US has turned into something much more vindictive and unpredictable, including threatening to invade Canada. The thing about China is that they are basically hard on the up slope of their advancement as a society/economy/nation, just like US was post ww2. US on the other hand, has flatlined to the point where we think stuff like trans athletes in sports are a drastic enough reason to elect a president who is a c…

> US on the other hand, has flatlined to the point where we think stuff like trans athletes in sports are a drastic enough reason to elect a president who is a convicted Felon. This is very one-sided and unfair. The trans stuff is indicative of a larger social movement. For example, in the U.S., it would be illegal to use IQ tests to hire employees while in China, that's practiced. China is far more meritocratic. The…

> China is far more meritocratic. The U.S. is driven far more by ideology, and the trans stuff is an example of that.

I'm guessing you never lived and worked in China before? People who get jobs because of guanxi are not rare, even today, and ideology is far more important in China than in the US, it is just that the ideology is very different from what people are used to in the states.

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