Yes, I'm deeply concerned. China subsidizes their industry massively. The estimate is about $230 billion U.S., which eclipses anything that we've seen in North America. Of course, they have depressed wages. There's no organized labour or unions at Chinese auto plants, so they're paying, on average, two dollars U.S. an hour. At a Canadian plant, Unifor-unionized, it's $45 an hour.
They have massive overcapacity. They have enough capacity in China to satisfy domestic demand two or three times over. What they're doing now is trying to dump this excess product into markets around the world that are naive enough to open up and accept said product.
We know where this goes. You just have to look at markets that have opened to China. China is a coercive trade partner. Once the door is open, they will seek additional market access until your industry is eliminated, and then you become totally dependent on them for said product. That is the road we're going down with this agreement.
