Employees work at a BYD factory in Huai'an, China, in August, 2024. The new trade deal opens up some of the Canadian auto market to Chinese EVs in exchange for reduced tariff barriers on several products such as canola.STR/AFP/Getty Images

Whatever you think of the wisdom of Mark Carney’s trade deal with China, it’s not a big vote of confidence for the future of Canada’s auto industry. At least, not the auto industry we have known.

It was a move to jump-start trade with the world’s second-largest economy, opening the big Chinese market to Canadian canola, peas and seafood.

Yet, the concession that Mr. Carney made – accepting imports of 49,000 Chinese vehicles a year with very low tariffs – is a far bigger signal than he admitted.

It suggests the Prime Minister is no longer betting big on the survival of the cross-border auto trade we have known since the 1960s.

Opinion: How Canada’s auto sector can survive its terrible, no-good, very bad year

Mr. Carney’s federal government is now shopping for new investors in Canada‘s auto sector from South Korea and China. The Globe and Mail reported last week that the government plans to give foreign automakers that build cars in Canada preferential........

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