“When we first heard the news, our hearts sank. It’s absolute devastation.”
That is from Andre Harpe, the chair of Alberta Canola.
He says it is a stressful time for canola farmers, following China’s implementation of 100 per cent tariffs on Canadian canola oil and canola meal, as well as a 25 per cent levy on the country’s seafood and pork. China says the move is a response to Canada’s tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, and steel and aluminum products.
Harpe says the news is not good for anyone in the industry, noting, “China is our second biggest buyer of canola right now and it’s been a great partner”.
Alberta Canola represents over 12,000 canola farmers in the province.
“We’re getting huge concern, and I think right now part of the problem is the instability of the federal government,” Harpe says, adding the country has a new Minister of Agriculture who is “just trying to learn the job, let alone having to deal with tariffs and everything”.
CALLS TO OTTAWA
Canola farmers are calling on the federal government to find ways to resolve the issue, whether that be through the removal of tariffs or compensation to those impacted.
“The first thing we will communicate is basically, these tariffs are as a retaliation to the EV [electric vehicle] tariffs so to me, an easy win would be to pull back the EV tariffs because we don’t have an EV manufacturing market in Canada right now, so I’m not sure why we have tariffs on that,” Harpe states.
“If we can get that done, a lot of the issue will go away but at the same time, if China keeps our tariffs on, at some point, we are going to need to be compensated.”
“We are looking at, right now, in the next coming year, canola farmers losing over $1 billion and that $1 billion is basically any profit that we thought of ever having,” he adds.
Harpe is asking everyone to speak with their local MP or other elected official to lobby Ottawa to address the situation and avoid further tariffs on other items in the industry, whether those be from China or the United States.
“We can’t have retaliatory tariffs. We need to have those excused, because you know, if you have a piece of John Deere equipment, you can’t buy from anywhere else, you have to buy from John Deere,” he remarks.
Harpe says with many agricultural products, there is not a choice when it comes to replacements and those must be found through a direct manufacturer, with many of those based in the United States.
OPTIMISM
Despite the stress of the times, Harpe says his advice for farmers and industry members is to stay calm, “hold on and just see where this goes”.
“It seems like it’s changing all the time. It’s almost like Alberta weather – if you don’t like what you got, wait five minutes, and especially when it comes to our neighbours down in the south, that’s what’s happening,” he remarks.
“Stay calm [and] do what you need to do. We’re a month away from seeding and it gets back to just ‘keep on doing what you’re doing’ and hopefully we will get this all sorted out.”
