Canada and China have struck a preliminary deal to eliminate tariffs on canola meal and peas, an agreement Premier Scott Moe said was made possible through the efforts of Prime Minister Mark Carney and will benefit Saskatchewan producers and the wider Canadian economy.
At a news conference at the University of Saskatchewan on Tuesday, Moe unveiled the agreement alongside provincial ministers of agriculture and trade and export development and representatives from industry stakeholder groups.
“This is, make no mistake, a positive agreement for the Saskatchewan agriculture industry — as we produce about 55 per cent of the canola production in this nation,” Moe said. He said the agreement will be very significant to Saskatchewan farmers, exporters, and to the processing industry in the province.
The agreement is also important to the Canadian agriculture industry, Moe said, and the Canadian economy. “This is an industry. Canola alone employs over 200,000 people across Canada. It is a $44-billion industry,” he told reporters.
Moe said he credits Prime Minister Mark Carney and the federal government, which he “hasn’t done a lot of in the last decade.”
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“He engaged earnestly, with at all levels of the Chinese government.”
Former Regina Liberal MP Ralph Goodale who recently retired after serving 26 years as a Liberal MP in Regina told Global News he believes it was “absolutely essential” for Carney to pivot towards a trade deal with China.
“Our biggest trading relationship is with the United States. But there is a whole cloud of uncertainty around that right now. We need to build out our economy so that we can be stronger and more resilient and more successful on our own,” Goodale said.
He added that Canada needs to diversify its trading relationships with China, the U.K., Europe and the Asia Pacific region.
“We need to work very hard to try to rebuild our relationship with the United States, but at the same time, build our own economy, become our own best market, and work on every other conceivable market all around the world,” he said.
“And for Saskatchewan — for canola, peas, and beef — the Chinese market is extremely important.”
On Friday, Carney touted a renewed relationship with China and “enormous progress” on trade irritants as he announced a new deal with Beijing on electric vehicles and canola at the end of a high-profile trip to China.
Prairie premiers and farm groups welcomed the drop in tariffs on some agricultural products.
The deal, made public shortly after Carney met with President Xi Jinping in Beijing, marks a de-escalation in tensions with a country the Liberal government branded as a disruptive power just three years ago.
Carney distanced himself from that description on Friday, noting he was not part of the government that used the term in Canada’s 2022 Indo-Pacific strategy.
The tariff changes are expected to come into force by March 1.
–with files form The Canadian Press
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