Earlier this week, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced their results of an anti-discrimination investigation into Canada for imposing a 100% tariff on Chinese EV’s, and 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum products last year. From this investigation, the State Council Tariff Commission announced retaliatory tariffs of an additional 100% on Canadian peas. President of Pulse Canada, Greg Cherewyk, explains the importance of Canadian peas in trade relations with China.
“It's an incredibly important crop that has been since the mid 1990’s. Of course, we've expanded acreage since that time, largely fueled by demand out of countries like India and China. Over the past five years, we averaged about 1.5 million tonnes per year of sales into China which is worth anywhere between $800-$1 billion dollars annually, so it’s a very significant market for Canadian peas.”
With a magnitude of tariff talks over the last few weeks within Canada, it can be easy to assume that these tariffs are due to recent events. However, this stems all the way back from last July, when Canada launched a consultation and eventually implemented 100% tariff on EVs and an additional 25% tariff on steel and aluminum products imported from China in October. Cherewyk recounts the timeline, and of the concerns raised regarding that decision.
“Back in July (2024), there was a consultation started by the Canadian government on the imposition of duties on electric vehicles, steel and aluminum out of China. We expressed our concern at that time, we were one of the few groups that said this is not how we would expect our trading partners to handle these types of issues. We're concerned that this may lead to some form of retaliation in the future, and here we are.”
With these tariffs on Canadian peas, alongside with tariffs on canola, pork, and seafood taking effect on March 20th; Cherewyk states there’s no time or use in reflecting on the past and wondering if things were handled properly, but how we need to look forward to resolving this issue.
“I’m not sure that there's a ton of value in assessing whether or not this was handled in an appropriate way back in the summer and fall of last year. Now the question is, what do we do? We've got a very new leader in place, and you know we see opportunity in in all of it, believe it or not. We see an opportunity for our new leader to reach out with President Xi Jinping and negotiate. This is not a retaliation, this is not a trade or tariff war, this is an invitation to negotiate.”