SARM urges action from federal government on canola dispute

The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) has started a letter-writing campaign urging the federal government to rebuild its relationship with China so canola farmers can regain access to that country’s market.

SARM president Ray Orb said he is frustrated about how Ottawa has handled the dispute so far.

“The federal government is asking finally for help from the United States who … put us in this predicament in the first place,” Orb said on 980 CJME’s Gormley on Monday.

China has blocked canola seed shipments from two Canadian companies — Richardson International and Viterra — claiming to have found pests.

However, it is believed that move was retaliation for Canada’s detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on behalf of U.S. authorities on fraud charges.

Orb said the Americans have not helped Canada, with a clause in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that would allow them to pull out of the agreement if Canada strikes a trade deal with China.

Meanwhile, Orb said, the U.S. and China are negotiating a trade deal of their own.

“There doesn’t seem to be much appetite from the U.S. to help Canada at all. Instead they seem to be digging us in a little deeper,” he said.

The group has a template it is asking letter-writers to build on.

“It’s time for the federal government to focus on cultivating relationships with China as this is how business is done there. Canada needs an ambassador to China and a strategy to reach a diplomatic resolution on canola,” it reads.

About 23,000 farmers in Saskatchewan plant canola but it’s not the only crop that Canada is having a hard time exporting. Orb said there are trade barriers for durum wheat in Italy, feed barley in Saudi Arabia, wheat in Vietnam and pulses in India.