Canada against Gm and Stellantis: 'Legal obligations violated'

The Canadian government has tightened controls on Stellantis and General Motors, which have announced their intention to cancel or relocate production, restricting imports of vehicles benefiting from tariff measures in Canada.

"The measure follows the automakers' unacceptable decision to reduce their production presence in Canada," the Finance Department explained, emphasising that the two multinationals were "violating their legal obligations".

Ottawa is reducing the annual quota eligible for tariff exemption to Gm by 24.2% and to Stellantis by 50%. The Canadian auto sector has suffered several setbacks due to US tariffs. Last week, Stellantis announced plans to move production of the Jeep Compass from Ontario to Illinois; Gm announced it was moving production of its BrightDrop electric vans north of the border. The 'deeply disappointed' Canadian government intends to use all possible means to hold companies accountable for the billions of dollars they have received over the past decades.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged the big three American carmakers to move production to the US, and the pressure has raised fears in the Canadian territory of Ontario about the impact on the industry. Indeed, cars are Canada's second largest export product, and Premier Mark Carney has noted that the sector employs 125,000 Canadians directly and another 500,000 in the supply chain.

In April, the government imposed retaliatory tariffs on some US products, but provided exemptions for some car manufacturers to import a specific number of vehicles into the country, known as 'remission quotas'.