Canada may have found an unlikely ally in fight against U.S. auto plan
CBC
This item is part of Watching Washington, a regular dispatch from CBC News correspondents reporting on U.S. politics and developments that affect Canadians.
There's a glimmer of hope for the Canadians who've spent months lobbying U.S. politicians to drop an idea they fear could devastate the auto industry north of the border.
The source of that hope is from West Virginia, where both state senators — one a Democrat, the other a Republican — have made comments suggesting a controversial electric vehicle tax-credit plan in a key American budget bill could be amended or killed.
Sen. Joe Manchin, the Democrat, had a lengthy conversation this week with Canada's ambassador to Washington, Kirsten Hillman.
He holds a crucial vote in the Senate that could decide the fate of a $1.75 trillion budget bill that is the most important legislation of Joe Biden's presidency.
Manchin, a self-styled centrist, has been using his clout for months to water down the bill and has made it clear he won't vote for it until he's satisfied.
Because the Senate is divided 50-50 between the parties, every Democrat must agree to pass the sprawling budget bill — which affects child-care policy, health care, immigration and climate change.
Enter the vehicle tax credit.
Manchin has now made clear in public comments that he has problems with the current version of the bill's vehicles plan.
It offers hefty tax credits to Americans who purchase electric vehicles, yet over time it would be exclusively reserved for vehicles assembled in the U.S. by union workers.
That's caused tremors of concern that assembly plants might move out of Canada and Mexico, and also out of places that don't have union-run plants, especially in the southern U.S.
Manchin happened to be at one such plant on Thursday: a West Virginia facility where Toyota announced a $240 million investment.
In an interview there with Automotive News, Manchin ripped the idea of a credit that discriminated against his own state, and said he expressed that displeasure to the Michigan Democrat who proposed it, Debbie Stabenow.
He called the plan wrong and un-American.
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