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Ottawa says the Canadian trade delegation that visited China earlier this month to discuss canola tariffs and other trade issues held productive meetings with Chinese officials and stakeholders.
The delegation, which included the prime minister’s parliamentary secretary Kody Blois and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, visited China from Sept. 6 to 9 with the primary goal of addressing the ongoing canola trade dispute. China last month
imposed 75.8 percent temporary tariffs on Canadian canola on top of levies it had
slapped on canola-related products earlier this year.
During the visit, Blois met with Ma Zhaoxu, China’s executive vice minister for foreign affairs, Li Chenggang, vice minister of commerce, and other Chinese officials to “discuss pathways to resolve existing trade irritants,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a Sept. 12
statement.
“The delegation had constructive discussions to these ends with Chinese officials and key organizations involved in trade between Canada and China,” reads the statement. “The visit paves the way for further constructive engagement with Chinese counterparts to find pragmatic solutions to shared trade concerns.”
In meetings, Blois also “underscored Canada’s commitment” to supporting farmers affected by Beijing’s tariffs, as well as the
measures Ottawa has announced to offset the impact of those levies, the PMO said.
China imposed its latest tariffs on Canadian canola weeks after Ottawa
said it would apply additional 25 percent tariffs on steel imports from all non-U.S. countries containing steel melted and poured in China, citing the need to protect Canada’s domestic industry from trade diversion.
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Beijing said the latest tariffs stemmed from an “anti-dumping”
investigation the regime launched last year following Canada’s decision to impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) and 25 percent tariffs on Chinese aluminum and steel.
Ottawa
said at the time those tariffs were necessary to protect Canadian industries from “unfair” competition from Chinese producers “who benefit from China’s intentional, state-directed policy of overcapacity and oversupply.”
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Premier Moe has called on Ottawa to lift the EV tariffs in hopes of obtaining tariff relief on canola. He has also
supported engaging with Beijing to restore access to the Chinese canola market.
“It is going to be very challenging, if not impossible, for us to find another market with the single volume that China may take,” Moe
said ahead of his trip to China.
Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has
warned against lifting tariffs on Chinese EVs, saying they are necessary due to national security risks.
“Do we want on our streets, in 10 years from now, a million rolling surveillance vehicles that have cameras and chips and other devices that are easy to track and potentially remote-controlled?” he said late last month, noting that “the Chinese government wants to have the ability to track and surveil our people.”
Poilievre has also said Ottawa should not make concessions to resolve the canola dispute, but instead “toughen up” in response to Beijing’s trade actions. He says Ottawa’s response should include
cancelling a loan the federal infrastructure bank is giving BC Ferries for purchasing four vessels from a Chinese state-owned shipyard, arguing the deal benefits a regime that “punished Canadian farmers with unfair and unjustified tariffs.”
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Carney
said last week that his government will seek to expand trade ties with Beijing, given China’s position as Canada’s second-largest trading partner. He noted that any expanded cooperation would have to be “consistent” with Canadian values. Carney has previously
called China “the biggest security threat to Canada,”
describing it as a major source of foreign interference.
Ahead of the delegation’s visit to China, Blois said Canada would focus on reopening the Chinese market while also working to diversify its exports.
Documents released in July
show that Canada’s new trade minister, Maninder Sidhu, was briefed by Global Affairs on Beijing’s “economic coercion” earlier this year upon taking office.
The briefing note says China “leverages its dominant market position in strategic sectors to advance its policy goals, including through the leveraging of trade dependencies in import and exports and where it holds a critical place in global supply chains.”
Beijing has on various occasions targeted the canola industry during periods of diplomatic or trade tension with Ottawa, including in 2019 when it imposed a three-year
ban on Canadian canola imports following the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver months earlier.
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Udumbara
