Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe met with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Ottawa on Tuesday to talk about the canola industry.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said solving Canada’s trade war with China will be a “sensitive and delicate dance” with both Beijing and Washington because it was triggered by tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles that Ottawa imposed in concert with the United States.
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.
That was on top of a 100-per-cent Chinese tariff on Canadian canola oil, canola meal and peas imposed in March, and a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian seafood and pork products.
Speaking Monday after a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney on the canola industry, Mr. Moe suggested Canada has to move carefully so as not to be offside with the U.S.
Asked whether he came away from the meeting with an optimism that Mr. Carney might cut the Chinese EV tariffs, Mr. Moe replied it’s “not as simple as that.”
He noted the EV tariffs were a joint action with “our largest trading partner, the United States of America, which we’ve aligned with” and said any path forward involves talks not only with Beijing but also the Trump administration in Washington.
Canada’s canola industry seeks U.S. biofuel policy exemption amid pressure from China tariffs
Mr. Moe suggested trade discussions that Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is having with Washington include EV tariffs on China. The Premier had been asked whether China had assured him dropping the tariffs on EVs would lead to Beijing eliminating levies on canola.
He said he expects Mr. LeBlanc is “having that dialogue” with Washington. “We have many topics of discussion and trade that are very, very important to the United States of America, with respect to their food and energy security, as well as manufacturing security.”
Mr. Moe sounded an optimistic note on trade with China, saying he thinks a recent decision by China to delay the conclusion of a probe into anti-dumping allegations against Canada offers a ray of hope in Ottawa’s trade war with Beijing.
“I would say that that’s a signal that there may be a pragmatic path forward, or at least an opportunity for that dialogue to happen. And so my hope is that there’s going to be very much in the way of engagement by [federal] ministers with their Chinese counterparts in the next number of weeks and months, so that we can have that dialogue and actually find a resolution.”
China announced earlier this month it extended its year-long anti-dumping investigation into imports of Canadian canola seed by another six months, until March, 2026. Dumping is selling a product in another market at below fair value.
Ottawa aims to help beleaguered canola industry with moves to boost domestic biofuel production
The final report would cement in place duties against Canada for five years and so Beijing’s delay of the study offers more time to find a negotiated solution, William Pellerin, a partner with McMillan LLP’s international trade group, said.
“The Ministry of Commerce in China is subject to political involvement in these cases, and so it is good news, in a sense, that the duties are not yet locked in place for this five-year period,” he said.
Mr. Moe, who recently returned from a trade mission to China this month, said the discussions with Beijing were positive.
He said it was “a good discussion about the need to not look back, but to look ahead, and to recalibrate the dialogue and the relationship between Canada and China, and to move forward in a pragmatic and constructive, constructive manner, and to find a constructive path that is beneficial for both countries and the folks that live, not only in Canada, but live in China.”
The European Union, which also imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs, earlier this year agreed with Beijing to explore alternatives such as setting a minimum price for EVs from China.
Mr. Moe said it will be up to the federal government to find the way forward.
“We’re seeing other nations, or groups of nations, that are finding their way to a resolution on some trade disputes or irritants with China. The European Union, for example, has found a path forward in the space of EVs, coming to a resolution in that space.”
China’s duty on canola seed has cost 40,000 canola farmers across Western Canada tens of thousands of dollars each as prices fluctuate and respond to the loss of the sector’s second-largest, $4.9-billion market.
With reports from Kate Helmore