‘I don’t know’: Biden noncommittal on including Canadian vehicles in EV tax credit

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Joe Biden isn’t making any promises about whether he’s willing to alter his controversial tax credit proposal for new electric vehicles.

Biden, meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Oval Office, says that’s one of the issues the two leaders will talk about.

Later today, Trudeau, Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will gather for a trilateral summit — their first since 2016.

Canada and Mexico both are worried that the tax credit proposal, which if implemented as it stands would be worth up to $12,500 to a new car buyer, is too heavily geared toward U.S.-made vehicles.

Biden, who has made it clear he shares some of his predecessor’s protectionist instincts, also designed the credit to favour vehicles made with U.S. union labour.

But in his opening remarks, he described the U.S. relationship with Canada as “one of the easiest” and “one of the best” because of the shared values between the two countries.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2021.