Canada must set sights on pork tariffs after canola deal: Kinew

Premier Wab Kinew welcomed news that China will lift tariffs on Canadian canola, while Manitoba growers said they’re happy to hear it but concerned about the reaction to the trade deal from the U.S.

“We’ve been asking in western Canada, certainly our government here in Manitoba, for an off-ramp for these canola tariffs,” Kinew told reporters Friday morning.

Canada expects China to drop tariffs on Canadian canola seed to 15 per cent by March 1 until at least the end of the year, a news release from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office said Friday morning.

“This change represents a significant drop from current combined tariff levels of approximately 85 per cent,” it said. The deal affects Canadian canola meal, lobsters, crabs, and peas.

“To see some progress here, this is welcome news for the ag sector,” Kinew said.

It took a Manitoba canola grower by surprise Friday.

“I was happy to hear it,” said Chuck Fossay. “I was only moderately optimistic that any deal would be announced with the prime minister’s visit to China.”

China is a $4-billion canola seed market for Canadian producers, with Manitoba producing nearly 16 per cent of Canada’s crop. It is the province’s top crop by farm cash receipts, contributing more than $2 billion to agricultural exports in 2024.

Reducing the canola seed tariff will allow producers to sell to China, and the removal of the 100 per cent tariff on canola meal is especially good news for domestic canola crushers who need a market for canola meal, the farmer said.

“We can’t use all the meal that they crush domestically, so we have to have export markets to ship it to,” said Fossay, a Starbuck-area farmer and director with Manitoba Canola Growers and the Canola Council of Canada. “That’s going to be a big help to the domestic crushers, which means they will continue to buy canola. So that’s good for the crushers and it’s good for the producers.”

The tariff on canola oil remains at 100 per cent, but Canada doesn’t ship much of it to China, Fossay said.

“To see some progress here, this is welcome news for the ag sector.”

Kinew said the trade deal with China will benefit Manitoba’s “massive” agricultural sector.

“It’s a huge part of the Canadian economy, a huge part of our Manitoba economy,” Kinew said ahead of a noon meeting Friday with Carney and his fellow premiers about the Canada-China agreement. The premier said he hopes the 25 per cent tariff China imposed on Canadian pork came up during the trade talks and will also be lifted.

“We need to get some more details because we need to see the pork tariffs taken off, as well,” the premier said.

Manitoba is Canada’s largest pork producer, exporting $1.7 billion in pork and pork products in 2024, with Japan, the U.S., South Korea, Mexico, and China its key markets.

The value of pork exports to China declined nearly 20 per cent since the tariffs were imposed last March, Manitoba Pork Council general manager Cam Dahl said.

“We don’t have good alternative markets for the products that we send to China, so it is having a significant impact on Manitoba,” said Dahl. Manitoba Pork producers appreciate the premier and the government of Manitoba pushing for the tariff to be lifted, he said.

After Friday’s meeting, a spokesperson for the the premier said he didn’t have any details to share about the deal or whether China might remove the pork tariff. It was imposed, along with the canola tariff last year, in response to Canada slapping 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles.

Friday’s trade deal allows as many as 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles into the Canadian market, with the most-favoured-nation tariff rate of 6.1 per cent. The number of vehicles amounts to the same number imported prior to “recent trade frictions on these imports,” the release said. That volume of vehicles represents less than three per cent of the Canadian market for new vehicles sold in Canada.

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford has criticized the deal saying it’s not worth the potential impact on Canadian auto workers. Kinew said the canola tariffs are having an impact right now on Canadian producers.

“What I would say to the Ontario auto worker is there is time for us to support your industry,” Manitoba’s premier said. “I just encourage folks in Ontario, including Ontario farmers, to remember this is a real impact today that we’re facing with the Chinese tariffs on agricultural products.”

Fossay said he is waiting to see how U.S. President Donald Trump responds to Canada lifting the Chinese-made EV tariff that was imposed to be in lockstep with the U.S.

“What’s his reaction going to be” Fossay asked. “What’s he going to do? The U.S. is a much bigger market for Canadian canola than China is. Are we going to regain one market to lose another market?”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.