Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, left, and Prime Minister Mark Carney, right, meet in Ottawa on Tuesday.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said a trade conflict with China shouldn’t pit one region of the country against another as he tries to support the hard-hit canola industry while Ontario lobbies to preserve Canadian tariffs on China that started this dispute.
China in August imposed a 75.8-per-cent duty on Canadian canola seed, a major crop in Saskatchewan, as part of its retaliation for Ottawa’s 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese EVs and 25-per-cent levies on Chinese steel and aluminum in 2024.
China’s move was on top of a 100-per-cent tariff on Canadian canola oil, canola meal and peas that Beijing imposed in March, and a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian seafood and pork products.
China has made no secret of its wish for Canada to drop the tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Ottawa imposed the levies in concert with the United States in order to stop what both countries said was deliberate overproduction in order to flood global markets.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney Wednesday asking him not to drop the EV tariffs on China. He said in his letter that the tariffs are protecting Canadian jobs and that removing them could end up isolating this country from its two North American trading partners.
“At a time when our automotive sector is under enormous financial pressures because of President Trump’s tariffs, Canada’s tariff on Chinese-made EVs is critical to protecting more than 157,000 direct jobs in Ontario and hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs across the country,” Mr. Ford wrote.
Scott Moe says solving trade war with China will be ‘sensitive and delicate dance’
He noted that Mexico has announced that it will apply a 50-per-cent tariff on all Chinese automobiles including EVs.
“China’s pervasive use of non-market policies and practices, including heavy subsidization and low environmental and labour standards, gives its industry unfair advantages over Canadian automotive manufacturers,” Mr. Ford said.
“If the federal government removes its tariffs against Chinese-made EVs, you will contradict and undermine months of engagement with U.S. officials and lawmakers about the need to protect and enhance our highly integrated cross-border automotive supply chains.”
Mr. Moe, in an interview Wednesday, said the answer is not as simple as dropping EV tariffs.
“It isn’t trading one industry for another. It isn’t trading one job for another. It’s doing what we can to preserve them all,” he said.
The Saskatchewan Premier suggested Canada has to move carefully so as not to be offside with the U.S.
China’s duty on canola seed has cost 40,000 canola farmers across Western Canada tens of thousands of dollars each.
Mr. Moe said he simply wants to retain Saskatchewan’s market access to China’s canola customers.
He said there has to be a solution that both sides can live with, pointing to Mexico’s 50-per-cent tariff – instead of a 100-per-cent levy – or the European Union’s tariff that only reaches as high as 35 per cent for some vehicles.
Mr. Moe said he hopes federal ministers will visit China to try to find a resolution and that this could culminate with a meeting between Mr. Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping this fall on the sidelines of an event such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit.
“We’re part of the food-security chain of China, and they know that, and we want to be part of it as we move forward.”