Canadian agriculture minister visits China

Glacier Farm Media | MarketsFarm — The Canadian government confirmed on Nov. 19 that Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay met with Chinese officials to discuss the canola trade between the two countries. This came about a week after rumours in the media began swirling about the trip.

MacAulay was in China during the week of Nov. 11, when the House of Commons was in recess.

Since Sept. 4, China has been pursuing an investigation into allegations of canola dumping by Canada, which is expected to take up to 12 months to compete. However, there has been speculation in the canola market the Chinese government might impose some kind of punitive measure in the interim. To date no such action has been taken.

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It’s widely believed in the trade that China is retaliating against the Canadian government for hiking tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles by 100 per cent and imposing more modest tariff increases on is steel and aluminum. Canada levied the high tariffs on EV’s in concert with the United States and the European Union.

A statement from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said MacAulay expressed his concerns over China’s actions. However, it did not indicate any results regarding canola from the minister’s visit.

In addition, MacAulay called on China to fully restore Canada’s market access for beef and dry pet food, and he was the keynote speaker at the annual general meeting of the Canada China Business Council.

“Canada has the best products in the world and it’s my job to promote them. This was my sixth trade mission to China over two terms as Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, and I am always proud to help showcase our delicious, high-quality, sustainable foods, while advocating for our trading relationship to be fair and beneficial to our hardworking producers,” MacAulay said in the statement.

At C$11.5 billion, China is Canada’s second-largest customer for agriculture, agri-food, fish and seafood food products. As well China is Canada’s largest canola seed customer at about 4.5 million tonnes, worth approximately C$3.8 billion.