Scott Moe headed to China with Mark Carney on trade mission

Moe had travelled to China in September alongside the federal government to find a path forward to resolve the dispute.

He says the next round of meetings will serve to continue building and strengthening the ties between the two countries.

“Canada and Saskatchewan need a strong relationship with China and these meetings support the process of recalibrating how we work together,” Moe said in a statement Monday.

“I am pleased to join Prime Minister Carney as we advance interests that are important to Canadians.”

Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) Executive Director Dion McGrath has said the province’s producers are all looking for the “removal of trade barriers and ending of the tariffs that China has imposed on peas, canola, and pork products.”

According to McGrath, these tariffs have disrupted the free movement of agricultural products since they were imposed, costing farmers roughly $850 million this crop year for just canola and peas.

It’s a cost that’s impacted, “every farm and ranch family in the province,” he said, with prices for the products softening since Chinese tariffs came into effect.

In September, APAS president Bill Prybylski said canola prices are about half of what they were just a couple of years ago. While that drop in price isn’t entirely due to tariffs, according to Prybylski, a producer with 2,000 acres of canola could end up with $500,000 less because of tariffs.

For pea producers, who are also struggling with Chinese tariffs, Prybylski said they’re seeing prices nearly a third of what they’d been a couple of years ago.

Dean Roberts, the board chair for Sask Oilseeds, said the group has been calling for the meeting with China since the tariffs were first imposed.

“I’m eager to find a resolution, or hear of a resolution,” he said. “But at this point, I’m just trying to manage my expectations.

“It’s been a long road to get to where we are, and we don’t know what we’re going to get next week.”

Roberts said he’s heard from frustrated farmers since the tariffs were put up.

“This was a federal government trade policy that caught our farms in the crossfire, and we’re paying the price,” he said.

Prybylski said the meeting is a step in the right direction, and the longer these tariffs are imposed the lower it will sink producers’ bottom lines.

“I think majority of producers are finding ways to pay their bills for now,” he said.

“But it’s certainly frustrating, the uncertainty for one thing, and just because of some political issues, our commodity prices are significantly decreased from where the theoretically should be if we were in a normal marketing situation.”

Roberts said producers are looking at “eye watering” fertilizer prices, and need to know if they will face costs related to tariffs on top of other costs for seeding.

“Fertilizer purchases are being made, seed is booked and being purchased,” he said. “We need these tariffs resolved before seeding so we can get some certainty on what we should or shouldn’t be putting into the ground for the coming year.”

Both Roberts and Prybylski said they will be watching the outcome of the meeting closely.

Moe and Carney are set to leave Tuesday for a three-day trip.

— with files from Marija Robinson, 650 CKOM, and Gillian Massie, 980 CJME

by Canadian Press

Scott Moe headed to China with Mark Carney on trade mission

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