PJ The Belt - June 20, 2026


Trump is PUNISHING Canada over this..


Episode Stats


Length

7 minutes

Words per minute

162.76

Word count

1,302

Sentence count

61


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.320 Canadians driving those cars could be turned away at the border if they're classified as prohibited.
00:00:07.420 All we're doing is just making this worse for us down the road.
00:00:11.120 The first of 50,000 Chinese EVs have arrived at a reduced tariff rate.
00:00:16.540 And then those vehicles are used to spy on China's adversaries like the United States, Canada, Europe and other countries.
00:00:23.400 This had been an investigation that had been going on for a while into countries and what they do to make sure that forced labor products are not bought or sold into their countries.
00:00:35.100 There were different kind of classifications.
00:00:37.200 Canada was in a group that said that they had provisions to deal with forced labor, but were not effectively implementing them.
00:00:44.620 Of course, that is related to the current USMCA, as Donald Trump likes to call it, the Canada-US-Mexico Free Trade Agreement, where there are provisions about forced labor.
00:00:52.580 Because of that, the U.S. trade representative is proposing that there be a 10% tariff on Canada.
00:00:59.400 Chinese EVs are rolling into Canadian ports and reopening a debate about security.
00:01:05.600 All we're doing is just making this worse for us down the road.
00:01:09.400 The first of 50,000 Chinese EVs have arrived at a reduced tariff rate.
00:01:15.040 In exchange, China lowered its punishing levies on Canadian canola and other products.
00:01:20.280 It's all part of Ottawa's rapprochement with Beijing.
00:01:24.280 In this world, yes, it's the second largest economy, but you need to have a dialogue with China.
00:01:31.960 A memo obtained by the Canadian press warns opening the auto market could amplify the presence of high-risk vendors.
00:01:39.460 It says connected vehicles collect significant amounts of data on Canadians, which can have intelligence value.
00:01:47.100 Ontario's premier, seeking to protect his province's auto sector, has slammed the deal.
00:01:52.900 I think I've been very clear how I feel about bringing in Chinese spy vehicles.
00:01:57.300 The memo also warns that under China's national security laws,
00:02:01.800 the PRC could compel manufacturers to hand over information.
00:02:06.700 The potential eyes and ears of the PRC.
00:02:08.820 This former intelligence officer testified before Parliament about the risks
00:02:13.420 and warns Canada is sending mixed signals to consumers considering buying these cheaper alternatives.
00:02:20.400 I think there's been a bit of an underlying lack of talking about the issues surrounding this technology
00:02:27.120 and how it could be used against Canadian interests.
00:02:29.680 In the United States, Democratic senators from Michigan, the heart of the U.S. auto industry,
00:02:35.180 are leading a bipartisan effort to tighten a crackdown on Chinese EVs.
00:02:39.680 If the U.S. were to ban Chinese connected vehicles from entry, the impact would also be felt here.
00:02:47.540 Canadians driving those cars could be turned away at the border if they're classified as prohibited.
00:02:54.460 For example, electric vehicles are formidable. They're undeniable.
00:02:59.240 These are the most affordable and energy efficient and innovative vehicles in the world.
00:03:04.780 Because they're heavily subsidized by communist China.
00:03:06.860 To build our own competitive EV sector, we need to learn from, partner with, and access, and build supply chains.
00:03:16.600 Cheap slave labor?
00:03:18.000 To help deliver on the full potential of these partnerships, and to bring down costs for Canadians,
00:03:23.920 we're going to start by allowing up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles into the Canadian market
00:03:30.360 at the most favored nation tariff rate, which is 6.1%.
00:03:35.760 So he's praising the fact that China makes the cheapest electric vehicles in the world, which no wonder those vehicles are heavily subsidized by the Chinese Communist Party.
00:03:45.940 And they also have basically slave labor out there.
00:03:49.160 The people that work in those factories don't get paid nearly as much as they should.
00:03:53.400 And then those vehicles are used to spy on China's adversaries like the United States, Canada, Europe and other countries.
00:04:00.200 And nothing says new alliance like having to use burner phones to make sure that the Chinese Communist Party isn't spying on journalists.
00:04:08.700 We're using burner phones for the first time when we covered this because China spies on journalists and businessmen.
00:04:15.660 China intercepts communications. Is China really the right kind of partner for Canadian industry?
00:04:21.420 Listen, we've been clear eyed. We're eyes wide open. We know this.
00:04:25.720 But there's been investments by Canadian companies for years here.
00:04:29.340 Tomorrow, I'm meeting with Magna. Magna, one of the biggest car auto parts companies in the world.
00:04:35.780 They have 30,000 people working here. We're meeting with Manulife. We're meeting with BMO.
00:04:43.080 These companies have been in China for years. Now, obviously, we're having these conversations with the Chinese government.
00:04:50.000 Word salad, word salad, making excuses for Chinese Communist Party that is spying on journalists.
00:04:55.860 journalists having to use burner phones because they know they're being spied on and the canadian
00:05:00.740 government is now aligning itself with that kind of government you can't make this stuff up of
00:05:07.140 course the media had to ask mark carney what he meant in regards to the new world order and all
00:05:10.900 of that and then somewhere in that word salad he says something along the lines of canada and china
00:05:16.260 are like-minded countries apparently according to this guy prime minister brian platt with bloomberg
00:05:22.660 news yesterday when you met with premier lee um one of the things you said in the public remarks was
00:05:28.900 um this partnership canada and china this new partnership sets us up well for the new world
00:05:33.860 order what what did you mean by that what is the new world order well this is it's a great question
00:05:38.900 brian because i think the world is still determining what that uh what that order is going to be and
00:05:44.500 let's be clear what we're talking about first and foremost which is what are the trading what what
00:05:49.860 is going to govern global trade? What is the role of the WTO going to be? How important are
00:05:55.540 bilateral deals such as the one we're developing? Plural lateral deals, if I can use that term,
00:06:01.620 trans-Pacific partnership, potential linkages between trans-Pacific partnership and the EU.
00:06:10.580 Where is financial regulation, payment system regulation going to fit into that? Areas of
00:06:16.420 geostrategy geosecurity you will have different coalitions that are formed so
00:06:24.660 what this partnership does is in areas for example of clean energy conventional energy
00:06:32.340 agriculture as we were just talking about and financial services which we've talked less about
00:06:38.420 but the evolution of the global financial system what how long do you hope usmca negotiations or
00:06:45.780 review go on well it's not something that's to me i think it's better without it i mean to be
00:06:51.600 honest with you i'm not a big fan of it i liked it because it got us out of nafta in other words
00:06:57.900 after six years you had a closet got us out of nafta that's the thing i liked about it most
00:07:02.760 we do better without an agreement do you want to just leave it enrolling i would rather leave it
00:07:08.300 unsigned i'd rather have it terminated you'd rather have it terminated those are different
00:07:12.940 things i just want to be clear i would rather not have the agreement but it i may sign it right but
00:07:18.300 i would we do better as a country if we don't have an agreement so are you thinking of yeah i'm
00:07:23.500 thinking about maybe we won't be able to make a deal i would rather not have the usmca the primary
00:07:29.100 reason i wanted it was because there was no way out of nafta which was the worst trade agreement
00:07:34.060 ever made like ever i would prefer not having an agreement but i'm open to doing it we'll see what
00:07:40.700 I view it as impossibly expiring immediately.
00:07:45.320 Some of NATO's largest economies, some of our richest countries,
00:07:51.040 allies that are happiest to go on about the rules-based international order
00:07:54.560 and middle powers banding together still seem to think the era of free riding is here.