Canola farmers say China retaliatory probe ‘one more thing’ to worry about

After a rail shutdown, inflation and drought, farmers are worried they'll end up paying the price for the fallout over Canada's tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

Farmers are bracing for the potential impact of China’s new anti-dumping investigation into Canadian canola imports, which comes amid an already tumultuous year of economic and environmental challenges.

China’s announcement Tuesday was in response to Canada planning to impose increased tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, steel and aluminum. While the federal government says those tariffs are meant to protect Canadian jobs, the agricultural sector is worried it may end up paying the price.

“A political decision on the other side of the world has a direct impact on our bottom line,” John McKee told Global News from his canola and wheat farm in Stirling, Alta.

“This is one more thing we’re going to deal with that comes out of left field. That is just a frustration.”

Tuesday’s announcement comes as food producers continue to recover from the four-day-long railway shutdown that choked Canada’s supply chains late last month.

CN and CPKC have said it could take weeks to get freight traffic back to normal despite federal government intervention that got trains moving again.

Their trains haul a combined $1 billion worth of goods per day, according to the Railway Association of Canada. The latest Statistics Canada data shows nearly seven million tonnes of canola were moved by rail in 2022.

Farmers have already been struggling with the rising cost of farmland and inflationary pressures on everything from feed to equipment. Persistent droughts have also affected output and market prices, though some farms have been able to plant more canola in the fall due to climate change delaying the so-called “killing frost.”