The Trump administration has announced plans to ban the use of electric vehicles in Canada as it tries to end a decades-old trade dispute with the country.
The announcement was made during a visit to Canada by President Donald Trump on Thursday, the first such visit by a U.S. president since Trump’s inauguration in January.
Canada is Canada’s largest export market for the United States, accounting for $50 billion in annual exports.
The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution on Dec. 3 calling on the Trump Administration to “immediately suspend importation of TESLA cars into Canada” and to “condemn” the company.
While the United Nations General Assembly has long supported exports of advanced technologies to the U.K., this is the first time it has formally called for the ban on Canadian imports.
Canadian officials have said that the ban will not impact Canadian companies that already import advanced technology from the U, but it will likely result in fewer Canadian-made vehicles entering the U., which has seen its car market shrink dramatically since the ban took effect.
On Thursday, Trudeau said that Canada will “continue to be a global leader in advanced manufacturing and research and development” and that “Canada is committed to continuing to be the best place to do business.”
“This is not the end of this journey,” Trudeau said.
“Canada is working closely with the U!
We will continue to be Canada’s global leader and we will continue investing in our advanced manufacturing sector.”
In a statement, TESLAC, which is based in the Netherlands, said it has been working with the Trudeau administration on “all aspects of the policy.”
The U, of course, is not alone in trying to close its door to foreign-made cars in the U; other countries have been trying to do the same.
The Trump Administration last year issued a ban on imported vehicles from Mexico, and it has also been cracking down on foreign car makers and parts suppliers, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A recent Associated Press investigation found that Ford, GM, Toyota and other companies have been importing parts and components from Mexico.
In response, the Trump Administrations Commerce Department issued a statement in December stating that it would be “unfair and inconsistent” for countries to target Canadian exporters, noting that “all automakers are committed to maintaining the highest standards of safety and quality” and “can’t and won’t compete in countries that are importing high-end automobiles and parts from the United Kingdom.”
A Trump Administration official also said that while Canada’s automotive industry has “grown significantly over the last decade, the auto industry remains underrepresented at the highest levels of government.”
In a phone interview on Thursday with CBC News, Teslac CEO John Prentice said he expects the ban to have “a very significant impact” on his business.
“What we see in terms of the impact on our business is that it will certainly have a significant impact on TESlac’s supply chain,” Prentice told CBC News.
“We have had some very positive conversations with the government of Canada, and they are very supportive of us and we are going to continue to work with them.”
The move follows a long-standing U.s.-Canadian trade dispute that dates back to the 1950s, when Canada banned imports of imported parts and equipment from the British Empire.
In the late 1980s, the U s then-prime minister, Jean Chrétien, and then-president George W. Bush signed a trade deal with Canada that included a number of provisions aimed at ending the trade dispute.
It was in the deal that Canada said it would not enforce tariffs on imports from other countries, but in the process it gave the U S a major boost in exports to Canada.