Less than two weeks after Prime Minister Mark Carney opened Canada’s doors to Chinese electric vehicles, General Motors CEO Mary Barra has broken her silence. She doesn’t like what she sees.

“I can’t explain why the decision was made in Canada,” Barra told employees during an all-hands meeting Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal. “It becomes a very slippery slope.”

The timing of Barra’s remarks creates an uncomfortable juxtaposition. GM is actively retreating from Canadian EV manufacturing at the exact moment Ottawa is welcoming Chinese competitors. The automaker stopped producing electric vans at its Ingersoll, Ontario factory last April, laying off approximately 500 workers. This month, it is cutting a shift at its Oshawa, Ontario pickup plant. Stellantis cancelled plans to build the electric Jeep Compass in Ontario entirely, moving production to Illinois. Barra’s “slippery slope” warning arrives as her own company slides out of the Canadian market.

The Fact: GM CEO Mary Barra criticized Canada’s agreement to allow 49,000 Chinese EVs at a 6.1% tariff rate, calling it a risk to North American auto manufacturing, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Contradiction: Barra’s objection comes as GM cuts Canadian jobs and abandons EV production in Ontario, raising questions about whether protectionism or competitive retreat defines Detroit’s real strategy.
The Buyer Impact: Canadian consumers will gain access to EVs priced under $26,000 USD while American buyers remain locked behind 100% tariffs with no affordable options.

Barra’s “slippery slope” warning targets trade flow, not consumer choice

General Motors CEO Mary Barra described Canada’s deal to import Chinese electric vehicles as a threat to North American auto manufacturing during a January 28 employee meeting, according to the Wall Street Journal. The agreement, announced January 16, allows up to 49,000 Chinese EVs into the Canadian market at a 6.1% most-favored-nation tariff rate, replacing the 100% duty Canada imposed in 2024. The volume represents less than 3% of Canadian new car sales.

Her concern has a concrete basis. The US and Canada share an intertwined auto supply chain built over three decades of trade agreements. Vehicle-safety and emission standards between the two countries closely mirror each other. A car certified for Canadian roads can be imported to America with minimal additional compliance work. The fear: cheap Chinese EVs enter Canada at 6.1%, then find their way across the border into a US market that currently blocks them with triple-digit tariffs.

Barra also pointed out that Chinese automakers benefit from high import tariffs and technology restrictions within China itself, barriers that prevent Western brands from competing on equal footing in the Chinese domestic market. The implication: China protects its home turf while exporting aggressively into everyone else’s.

Details of the deal remain scarce. Under the preliminary agreement announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office, at least half of the imported EVs must be priced at C$35,000 or less by the end of the decade. That works out to roughly US$26,000, a price point where virtually no competitive EV options exist in North America today. GM declined to comment beyond the internal remarks.

GM’s Ontario cuts contradict Barra’s concern for Canadian auto jobs

General Motors halted BrightDrop electric van production at its Ingersoll, Ontario factory last April, idling approximately 500 workers amid weak demand. Now the automaker is cutting a shift at its Oshawa, Ontario pickup plant by month’s end. Stellantis followed a similar path, canceling plans to build the electric Jeep Compass in Ontario and moving production to Illinois instead.

The combined message from Detroit: Canadian manufacturing doesn’t make sense for electric vehicles, but Canadian markets shouldn’t be allowed to access affordable EVs from elsewhere.

In 2025, Ford, GMe Stellantis sold more than 700,000 vehicles combined in Canada, according to company sales reports. They benefit from Canadian consumers. They are choosing not to build for them.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford previously called the China deal “lopsided” and warned it would hurt Ontario auto workers. But those same workers are already losing shifts and factories to decisions made in Detroit, not Beijing.

Canada is filling a gap that no Detroit automaker will

That C$35,000 price point matters because no Detroit automaker currently sells an EV in Canada under C$45,000. GM’s cheapest Canadian EV, the Equinox EV, starts above that threshold. The affordable EV segment in Canada is empty, and Ottawa decided Chinese manufacturers could fill it.

The tariff reduction came bundled with agricultural relief. Beijing agreed to cut combined tariffs on Canadian canola seed from roughly 85% to 15% by March 2026, unlocking nearly $3 billion in export orders for prairie farmers. The EV deal is not happening in a vacuum. It is part of a broader trade reset that has practical value for Canadian industries beyond automotive.

Chinese automakers are already at North America’s doorstep

Chinese car companies have captured roughly 25% of new vehicle sales in Mexico in 2025. China’s EV exports to Mexico surged 2,367% in recent years, turning America’s southern neighbor into a staging ground.

Canada now becomes the northern entry point. With vehicle standards that mirror US requirements, Chinese EVs certified for Canadian sale could theoretically be re-exported southward with minimal modifications. That is the “slippery slope” Barra is warning about, and it is not an unreasonable concern.

But the numbers tell a different story about who is winning globally. Detroit’s Big Three hold less than 5% of the global EV market, while BYD alone controls roughly 22%. BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s largest EV maker in 2025 and doubled its exports while Western automakers retreated. The 100% tariff imposed under President Biden and maintained by President Trump makes direct Chinese imports into the US economically impossible. That tariff wall creates the strategic calculus Canada has now disrupted.

Tesla’s Shanghai factory complicates Barra’s argument

One detail the WSJ article does not explore: Tesla builds EVs in Shanghai. As EVXL reported on January 20, Tesla shipped over 44,000 Shanghai-built vehicles to Canada in 2023 before the 100% tariffs shut that pipeline down. The company already has Canadian retail infrastructure with 39 stores and a factory configured for Canadian-spec exports.

Under the new 6.1% tariff, Tesla could resume shipping Shanghai-built Model 3s to Canada almost immediately, undercutting its own Berlin-produced vehicles on cost. That means Barra’s “slippery slope” may benefit her biggest American competitor before it benefits any Chinese brand. BYD has no Canadian sales network. Nio has no presence at all. Tesla is ready to move tomorrow.

EVXL’s Take

Mary Barra’s “slippery slope” warning reads differently when you examine what GM has actually done in Canada over the past 18 months.

This is the same company that halted BrightDrop production in Ontario last April, laying off 500 workers amid weak demand for electric commercial vans. The same company that laid off 3,300 EV workers across Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee in October. The same company that told shareholders EVs “remain our North Star” while simultaneously investing $888 million in V8 engine production.

GM’s concern for Canadian auto jobs would carry more weight if GM weren’t actively eliminating Canadian auto jobs. Barra’s complaint about Chinese manufacturers benefiting from protective tariffs and technology restrictions at home is valid. But it also describes the exact environment American manufacturers have lobbied to create in North America.

“I can’t explain why the decision was made” is not an argument. It is an admission that GM does not have an answer for affordable EVs. The reason Canada made the deal is simple: Canadian buyers want electric vehicles under C$35,000, and no one in Detroit is offering one. Ottawa found a supplier. That is how markets work when incumbents leave gaps.

BYD achieved near-price parity with gasoline vehicles through genuine manufacturing scale and 18-month development cycles that outpaced Tesla, GM, and Volkswagen by simply building better cars faster and cheaper. The tariff wall is not a strategy. It is a delay.

The uncomfortable reality for Barra: Canada’s 49,000-vehicle quota represents less than 3% of the Canadian market. If that small volume constitutes a “slippery slope” for North American manufacturing, GM’s actual problem is not Canadian trade policy. It is competitive readiness.

Expect BYD to announce a Canadian sales partnership within 90 days. Expect American automakers to pressure Washington for action against Canada during the 2026 CUSMA renegotiations. And expect the gap between protectionist rhetoric and market reality to keep widening.

Editorial Note: This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI to ensure technical accuracy and archive retrieval. All insights, industry analysis, and perspectives were provided exclusively by Haye Kesteloo and our other EVXL authors, editors, and YouTube partners to ensure the “Human-First” perspective our readers expect.