On the day U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs impacting Canada’s auto sector came into effect, an Ontario government agency announced support for a multinational manufacturer to bolster the province’s vehicle supply chain.
Minth Group, an aluminum and car parts manufacturer, plans to build a $300-million facility in Windsor with help from a $40-million taxpayer-funded loan. The company is a supplier for many major automakers, including Stellantis, which just announced it’s shutting down its Windsor facility for at least two weeks to assess the effects of Trump’s tariffs.
Minth Group’s entry into Ontario’s manufacturing sector is also an example of how complex and fraught the politics of international trade are as the U.S. wages a trade war with the world.
Last year, American authorities found Minth’s Mexican arm violated trade rules in a way that Ontario Premier Doug Ford has often railed against, a finding a senior executive of the company dismisses as merely “American bullying.”
“You look at Mexico, they’re importing cheap products … from China. They’re slapping a ‘made-in-Mexico’ sticker on and shipping it up, taking our hard-working men and women’s jobs away from them,” Ford said on Nov. 12, referring to American and Canadian workers.
Ford made nearly the exact same criticism of Mexico and China in a CNBC interview on Wednesday while imploring the U.S. to build a stronger trade relationship with Canada.
Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection “determined there is substantial evidence” that a Minth subsidiary in Mexico “evaded” American antidumping and countervailing duty orders (AD/CVD) on aluminum extrusions from China.
Aluminum extrusions include things like bars or beams — aluminum that’s been heated and shaped through a mould. Cars are made of many different types.
In a “notice of determination as to evasion” about Minth Mexico Coatings (MMC), U.S. Customs and Border Protection wrote, “Specifically, the record of investigation indicates that MMC imported aluminum extrusion automotive parts from Chinese suppliers that were transshipped through Mexico but failed to declare them as subject to the AD/CVD Orders.”
“As a result, no cash deposits were applied to the merchandise at the time of entry,” the American customs agency’s report continued.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Feb. 27, 2024 decision said it suspended aluminum extrusions that it found Minth Mexico Coatings was improperly importing from entering the States and required the company to pay the duties it had avoided.
A Minth senior executive minimized the U.S. law enforcement agency’s decision, saying in an email exchange with The Trillium that his company does not "ship cheap parts up through Mexico and slap stickers" on products.
“The auto industry is very complex and each part a very complicated part,” wrote William Chin, Minth Group chief strategy officer, on March 21. “Doing one manufacturing process (extrude aluminum) in China to begin with and adding on another part of the manufacturing process (assemble various parts, welding, and packaging) in Mexico, finally shipping the product to the U.S. for the automaker to assemble into a car, is a fairly normal process … Our logistics department simply defined the final product as made in Mexico, wheras the CBP insists that it is made in China, in order to collect more taxes.”
“They call it ‘tax evasion’, we call it ‘American bullying’,” he wrote.
Chin added that “difficult and complicated” China-Mexico-U.S. manufacturing processes were designed “all for the sake of producing cheap cars so that American consumers can buy them.”
“Don't think for a moment that auto suppliers have any kind of say in the supply chain,” he wrote. “We are very low in the auto industry food chain. We can only execute what our customers order us to do, nothing more, nothing less,” he wrote.
Cars are cheaper to make in China, where wages are lower than in North America.
The U.S.’s antidumping and countervailing duties on Chinese aluminum extrusions are in place to help the competitiveness and sustainability of its auto-manufacturing sector. Its industry is significantly intertwined with the same sector in Mexico and Canada — with the Canadian industry being largely based in Ontario. It’s common for a single finished car coming off a production line in North America to include parts made in all three countries, or have been partially built in each.
In a Feb. 17 email, Ford’s spokesperson said, “Premier Ford has never spoken with (Minth Group).”
At that time, Ford and his Progressive Conservatives were approaching the finish line of their re-election campaign. The Trillium had asked his spokesperson several questions about Minth Group, his government’s courting of the company, its Mexican subsidiary’s evasion of U.S. import duties, and Ford’s comments relating to the latter.
“We will review when we are back to protect the safety and security of our supply chain in Ontario,” Ford’s spokesperson said in her Feb. 17 email.
A priority problem
A top priority of Ford’s PCs during their almost seven years in government has been to attract and retain the business of manufacturers of vehicles and auto parts. Ontario’s Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Minister Vic Fedeli has led much of that work for the Ford government.
Invest Ontario reports to Fedeli’s ministry.
“With $40M in support from our Invest Ontario Fund, this project will bring nearly 1,100 new, good-paying jobs to the local economy and diversify Ontario’s automotive supply chain,” Fedeli wrote on X (formerly Twitter) of the agency’s announcement about Minth Group.
Over the last few years, the Ford government has committed over $10 billion of taxpayer funds in grants and subsidies for automakers’ plants and operations in Ontario.
Since 2020, vehicle and auto parts makers have made “over $46 billion in … investments” in the province, according to Invest Ontario’s news release.
The provincial agency said Minth Group’s future “multi-building facility” in Windsor will span “up to one million square feet.” It will “produce essential components for both conventional and electric vehicles including metal EV battery housing units and plastic exterior parts such as bumpers, grilles, and tailgates,” said Invest Ontario.
One of the largest amounts promised by the Ford government to support business in the auto sector was for the NextStar Energy electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor. The facility is a joint venture between Stellantis and LG Energy Solution. The Ford government dedicated $6 billion in government subsidies and other support to it. The NextStar plant began production in October.
The Ford government also promised just over $500 million to Stellantis to “retool and modernize” other plants it operates in Windsor and Brampton.
Elsewhere in the world, Minth Group is a supplier for Stellantis. One online job posting Minth North America made earlier this year was for a Windsor--based “Jr. Account Manager” to work with its “Stellantis Account Manager.”
A spokesperson for Stellantis in Canada didn’t respond to questions The Trillium emailed them several weeks ago about whether Minth Group would be a supplier to it in Canada.
Thousands of Stellantis employees in Ontario reportedly received layoff notices this week, along with 900 in the U.S.
