(Washington) A few words missing from Joe Biden’s state of the union speech make some Canadians breathe a little easier on Wednesday morning.
Posted at 2:40 p.m.
The US president renewed his call for tax credits to reduce the cost of electric vehicles, but made no mention of a preference for American-made cars and trucks.
This is encouraging for some in the Canadian auto sector, given the presence of protectionist sentiment in other parts of the hour-long speech, presented on Tuesday.
Mr. Biden had initially proposed a series of incentives that prioritized electric vehicles assembled in the United States by unionized workers — a plan that would hurt Canadian automakers.
Since then, Ottawa has been pressing the United States to drop this condition or grant an exemption for vehicles manufactured in Canada.
No one is quite ready to breathe a sigh of relief, with many insisting they need to know more about the president’s plan to know for sure if Canada is off the hook.