‘Devastating blow’: Alberta responds to 75.8% Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola

Alberta farmers say a 75.8 per cent tariff announced on Canadian canola by China could be devastating. The province produces a third of Canada's canola exports.

Alberta is responding to the announcement by the Chinese government that a 75.8 per cent anti-dumping duty will be imposed on Canadian canola starting on Thursday.

The province produces about one-third of Canada’s canola, about 6.4 million tons a year.

“China’s decision to impose a 75.8 per cent tariff on additional Canadian canola products is another devastating blow to Alberta’s agriculture industry.

“This comes on top of the existing 100 per cent tariffs on canola oil, canola oil cake and peas and threatens to cut Alberta producers out of one of their most valuable markets almost entirely,” R.J. Sigurdson, minister of agriculture and irrigation, wrote in a statement on Tuesday.

“These tariffs by China are in response to the federal government’s decision to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum, effective October 2024. Alberta’s farmers, ranchers and processors did not create this situation, yet they are paying the price.

“Alberta is once again calling on Ottawa to act swiftly, engage in constructive dialogue with China, and restore access to one of our most critical markets before more livelihoods are lost.”

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The province’s calls for federal intervention are echoed by the Alberta Canola Producers Commission.

“We’ve seen it in softwood lumber, we’ve seen it in other industries where there’s the threat of tariffs,” board chair Andre Harpe told CTV News Edmonton.

“The federal government is doing a lot of work with them. We need them to be as serious with canola as they are with other industries that are under the threat or tariffs are happening.”

Harpe, a canola farmer himself, says the tariffs could devastate farmers.

“I woke up this morning, as most canola farmers did, seeing that we had lost about $1 a bushel in the value of our product that we want to sell this year. So quite roughly, that’s seven per cent of our income that we potentially could lose just just overnight by just having the Chinese make that announcement,” he said.

“Obviously we’re going to be waiting to see what the long lasting effects are, and to see if they actually go through with this tariff.”

China is Canada’s second-largest canola market.

The largest export market for Canadian canola is the United States, where Canadian exports not compliant with the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement are subject to 35 per cent tariffs.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Kenny