Chinese EVs aren't selling in the U.S. and Canada largely because of 27.5% tariffs on the sale price of Chinese vehicles when they arrive at ports. Trump slapped on the bulk of the tariff, 25%, when he was president. Biden has continued this. Currently, the only Chinese-made EVs imported into Canada are Teslas made at the U.S. tech giant's Shanghai factory. The rest have similar tariffs. Should these tariffs be removed so that we can afford an EV?

Even if Chinese goods and services are sold at their true cost of manufacture, that cost undercuts North American prices due to China's lower commitment to pollution reduction in power generation. (See illustration) This lowers their manufacturing costs and puts us at a competitive disadvantage. China is the world leader in coal fired energy production. Should there be more pressure on China to reduce its carbon footprint through a carbon tax on their products?

Lets face it, we buy a lot of stuff from China because it is no longer made in our own countries. We killed our own industries because China made it cheaper. and now we have little choice but to buy from there. The money we send to China is used by them to buy our real estate, buy our industries and finance China's global ambitions. China also funds a climate change campaign against our countries while doing very little to clean up its own pollution. Should our governments be fighting back on our behalf? (See illustration)

As consumers we seem to be under attack from all sides in our government's quest to make us pollute less and this requires us to make sacrifices economically, change our lifestyles and even lose some of our rights and freedoms. To meet our climate goals there is a price on carbon without a drop in the price of clean energy. Should there be a moratorium on our climate change commitments until the alternatives are available at a more realistic cost?