YORKTON - Tariffs are easily the biggest issue – perhaps storm cloud is a better word – hanging over agriculture in Canada today.
It’s rather easy to understand the impact of tariffs – they impede the natural supply and demand flow of products crossing borders. The reason for tariffs are simply political tools imposed on trade for a variety of reasons – protecting domestic producers and making international political statements a couple of typical reasons to imposing tariffs.
Right now Canadian agriculture finds itself taking tariff war hits from two sources in particular, the United States and China.
The U.S. issue is less about the nation imposing tariffs and more about President Donald Trump 小蓝视频 – well Donald Trump. Ultimately, Trump appears to be a strange amalgam of a man intent on protectionism at home, while covering to be expansionist on the international side of things. His rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state seems far less amusing today than it did the first time he suggested the nonsensical notion. He – more than the US in general – is a threat to Canadian sovereignty – and his gaze extends farther too Greenland coming immediately to mind.
Trump tosses tariff threats around in a way that seem largely vindictive and petty without any real plan in his seemingly scattered mind – but there may well be darker subtext to consider too.
And, Canadian farmers are left wondering how sales to the US will take place in the months ahead.
China’s tariffs on canola oil and meal and a range of peas is more immediately troublesome given their 100 per cent rate and the scale of the market, but they also appear more easily understood.
The Chinese tariffs are largely a reaction to a 100 per cent Canadian tariff was announced on Chinese electric vehicles, along with a 25 per cent tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum.
The EV tariff was a move to basically shelter domestic efforts in that market, which is ultimately just a protectionist measure by this country.
Sure there have been suggestions Canada made its move because of questionable labour standards in China and manufacturing there lacks proper environmental standards – but if you start piling up tariffs based on other country’s standards not matching those in Canada one suspects it would encompass a lot of trading partners.
Ultimately is a fledgling EV sector worth sacrificing canola trade too?
Amid the tariff war barrages one other sector seems largely forgotten – the consumer.
It’s truly doubtful – at least in my mind – that Trump has given any real effort to determining what his tariffs will mean to American consumers. He sells them to his followers as creating jobs and that sounds great, but it will mean higher prices too as companies there either pay the tariffs on Canadian imports or source from less easily accessed and likely more costly sources.
And here in Canada it’s the same scenario – items will simply be off shelves or our costs will rise.
You would think consumers – as voters – would be the primary concern for government but the tariff war we are experiencing sadly suggest that is not the case.
