“It’s still in low, single-digit proportion of the size of the Canadian auto sector,” Carney said. “Canadians buy about 1.8 million autos a year.”

Trump’s bellicose approach to foreign affairs has forced Ottawa to look to China and the Middle East to grow trade and court foreign investment. The Carney government has set an ambitious goal to double non-U.S. trade in a decade to reduce reliance on the American market.

American and Canadian lawmakers and union leaders have argued in recent years that an influx of cheap Chinese imports endangers the future of the North American industry.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford implored Carney not to drop the tariffs on Chinese EVs for fear of cheap imports flooding the Canadian market.

“We can’t back down, simple as that,” Ford told reporters last week, but revealed the conditions under which he would be comfortable with lowering or scrapping tariffs.

“They want to come and open a big manufacturing facility and employ Unifor employees, well, let’s talk. But don’t be shipping cars in (that are) not manufactured by Ontarians.”

Canada’s shift on its hawkish policy targeting Chinese EVs doesn’t come out of the blue.

The Carney government launched an informal review of the tariff policy last year as China targeted Canada’s canola industry with punishing tariffs that closed the Chinese market to Canadian growers. The review has unfolded in secrecy, as the federal government declined to confirm its start or end.

The new trade détente with Beijing is another demonstration of the way Carney’s Liberal government is differentiating itself from Justin Trudeau’s era as prime minister, which held more hawkish policies on China.

Trudeau’s former industry minister, François-Philippe Champagne, introduced a national security review targeting Chinese investment in Canadian critical minerals.

Champagne was promoted to finance minister by Carney, but was not part of the federal delegation in China this week.

China is Canada’s second largest trading partner, after the United States, with total annual bilateral trade valued at C$118 billion.