OTTAWA \u2014 The owner of a small Canadian business that imports electric golf carts from China says his company is now in jeopardy because the federal government has billed him for more than $178,000 after placing his three-wheeled buggies in the same import category as electric vehicles (EVs).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joseph\u00a0McLuckie, who founded\u00a0JPSMGolf\u00a0in 2006 in his Toronto basement, said Friday that he has exhausted his appeals with\u00a0Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)\u00a0after the federal department confirmed its\u00a0ruling that his company’s\u00a0golf carts\u00a0are considered sport vehicles because they\u00a0“are conveyances used by the golfer to get their bag and associated accessories across the golf course during play.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The re-classification was made during a 17-month window when Canada was applying a surtax of 100 per cent on Chinese-made EVs, part of a trade war with China that was calmed earlier this year. The company, which has six employees, had previously and has since been paying 6.1 per cent surtax on its Chinese-made imports.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, he was informed that his shipment of\u00a0“Formula” trolleys from about a year earlier was now subject to a surtax of $169,882.35, plus GST of $8,494.12.\u00a0\u00a0The bill has since grown by more than $4,500\u00a0because of interest charges as he tries to fight the ruling.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
McLuckie said his business doesn’t\u00a0have the money to cover that bill.\u00a0“If I have to pay (this bill), I’m screwed.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the May 14\u00a0letter\u00a0from Juliana Leung, a senior officer of trade compliance with CBSA,\u00a0quotes from two dictionaries that define a vehicle as “a machine that commonly has wheels and an engine, that is used for transporting goods or people.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The letter\u00a0from CBSA, obtained by National Post,\u00a0concludes that its review of the matter found that no error was made\u00a0and that the department correctly ruled that the golf trolleys should be classified as EVs and hit with a 100 per cent import tax.\u00a0“Undoubtedly, the golf trolleys under review meet the definition of motor vehicle, as they employ an electric motor for propulsion, and are used to transport goods.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Formula models, whose price tags range from $1,299 to $2,499, are one of five brands sold by JPSMGolf. Not to be confused with four-wheeled golf vehicles, the electric Formula devices travel alongside their owner and are just large enough to carry a golf bag.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leung couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Karine Martel, a CBSA spokesperson, said the department couldn’t comment on specific company cases, nor does it have the\u00a0authority to deviate from the\u00a0wording of surtax rules. Requests for remission, she said, are handled by the Department of Finance\u00a0in consultation with other pertinent departments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McLuckie said that request has already been made.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Phone calls and emails on Friday were not returned by the Department of Finance, MP Juanita Nathan, who represents McLuckie’s federal riding, or the office of Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, who is responsible for CBSA.\u00a0<\/p>\n
JPSMGolf, which sells its imported goods only in Canada, has\u00a0sold about 25,000 units over the last two decades, amassing about $33-million in total sales.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 100-per-cent\u00a0surtax on Chinese-made EVs was implemented in 2024 by the Justin Trudeau government in a bid to protect the Canadian auto industry.\u00a0It was in line\u00a0with similar policies\u00a0by the United States and some other western countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That surtax\u00a0was cancelled earlier this year after the Carney government\u00a0reached a deal with Beijing to allow 49,000 Chinese EVs\u00a0(about 3 per cent of the Canadian market) into the Canadian market at a tariff rate of 6.1 per cent.\u00a0In exchange, China agreed to drop its tariffs on Canadian seafood and some key agricultural products.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The U.S. maintains heavy\u00a0tariffs on Chinese vehicles and the Trump administration and a\u00a0bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers<\/a>\u00a0have taken efforts to\u00a0block the vehicles from even driving into the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n National Post\u00a0<\/p>\n Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com<\/a> and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 The owner of a small Canadian business that imports electric golf carts from China says his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20524,20525,20527,20526,2087,44,8092,20523,20528],"class_list":["post-54379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-canada-border-services-agency","tag-canadian-business","tag-electric-vehicles","tag-federal-department","tag-federal-government","tag-golf","tag-golf-carts","tag-golf-trolleys","tag-specific-company"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}