‘A huge issue’: Sask producers watching canola retaliation

Worries mounted for some Canadian canola producers Tuesday as China took aim at canola for retaliation over EV tariffs.

On Tuesday, China announced it would launch an anti-dumping investigation into Canadian canola and some chemical products. This is in retaliation for the 100 per cent tariffs announced last week by the Canadian government for Chinese-made electric vehicles.

“Trade isn’t based on retaliation, trade isn’t based on doing an investigation to something that necessarily isn’t true – we’ve seen the market and canola production increase because it’s wanted, not because we’re dumping it,” explained Ian Boxall, president of Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS).

Dumping is when a country exports a product to another country for a cheaper price than it’s being sold at in the exporting country.

Boxall is asking the government to resolve this issue for Western Canadian agriculture as Canola is important.

Farmers are in their equipment, harvesting canola, but Boxall said most of what’s going to elevators right now is already priced. But the price for canola did take a dive on Tuesday, and Boxall said that will affect future contracts.

He said this news is another hit.

“Our inputs are still high and it makes it where it’s not cost-effective to grow,” said Boxall.

This isn’t the first time China has set its sights on Canadian canola in a trade dispute. In 2019, China stopped taking imports of canola from Canada — that situation wasn’t resolved until 2022.

“It just shows how important canola is to Canadian trade. They know that targeting canola is a huge issue… they’re a big buyer of our product and so it just shows that they know that that will hit us at home here,” said Boxall.

He said canola hits close to home in Canada – 40 per cent of the canola grown in Canada gets exported to China.