“China holds that countries should handle relations with one another with a win-win rather than zero-sum mindset, and through co-operation rather than confrontation,” ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular press conference.

U.S. President Donald Trump made the tariff threat over the weekend and warned Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that a deal would endanger his country.

Carney travelled to China this month and reached an initial trade deal with Beijing that would slash tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in exchange for lower levies on Canadian canola.

— Reporting by Xiuhao Chen and Ryan Woo

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The four-day visit to China was the first by a Canadian prime minister since 2017, following up on Carney’s positive meeting with Xi in South Korea in October. The two are set to meet again on Friday.

“We’re heartened by the leadership of President Xi Jinping and the speed with which our relationship has progressed,” Carney told China’s top legislator, Zhao Leji, in a meeting in Beijing.

WHY IT MATTERS; In a ‘roadmap’ agreement signed on Thursday, Canada and China committed to “maintaining open channels of communication” to resolve issues on trade in agricultural products.

“It sets the stage for these important discussions on a wide range of issues where we can be strategic partners from energy to agriculture, to people-to-people ties, multilateralism, to issues on security.”

Carney’s optimism follows months of intense re-engagement by both countries aimed at recalibrating ties that had soured under the previous prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

The efforts have also been fuelled by a push to diversify export markets after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada last year and suggested the longtime U.S. ally could become his country’s 51st state.

“Our teams have worked hard, addressing trade irritants and creating platforms for new opportunities,” Carney told Premier Li Qiang in a separate meeting.

“I believe that together, we are bringing this relationship back toward where it should be.”

Auto tariffs in focus

Periods of tension in the past decade have strained ties, most recently after Trudeau’s government imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in 2024, following similar U.S. curbs.

Trudeau said at the time the EV tariffs were imposed because Chinese state subsidies had given manufacturers in China an unfair advantage in the global marketplace, harming the outlook for Canada’s auto industry.

China retaliated last March with tariffs on more than C$3.6 billion of Canadian farm and food products, such as canola oil and meal, leading to a slump of 10.4 per cent in Chinese imports of Canadian goods in 2025, shown in customs data on Wednesday.

Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly, who was part of Carney’s delegation to China, said talks about auto tariffs were still ongoing, when asked by reporters if Canada might reduce the EV tariffs by 50 per cent.

Negotiations will continue on Friday, Joly said, when Carney will meet with Xi.

Dialogue has gathered pace

Efforts to strike up new dialogue have gathered pace since Carney took the helm last year, with top officials from both sides setting up meetings and telephone calls that resulted in the leaders’ October meeting in South Korea.

In a trade and economic roadmap signed on Thursday, both committed to “maintaining open channels of communication” to resolve issues on trade in agricultural products.

In the roadmap, Ottawa welcomes Chinese investments in energy, agriculture and consumer products, while Beijing looks forward to Canada’s investment in services, new materials, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, among other fields.

In energy, both sides are to explore oil and gas development, as well as cooperation in natural uranium trade.

The pacts provide “an example to the world of cooperation amidst a time globally of division and disorder,” Carney said in his meeting with Zhao.

Since arriving in the Chinese capital on Wednesday, Carney has met senior executives of its business groups, such as EV battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology and China National Petroleum Corp.

He has also met officials of smart wind turbine maker Envision Energy, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China 1398, investment firm Primavera Capital Group and e-commerce titan Alibaba.

— Additional reporting by Joe Cash in Beijing

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WHY IT MATTERS: Foreign minister Anita Anand said talks so far on canola had been productive and would continue.

Chinese imports from Canada tumbled 10.4 per cent in 2025 to C$57.9 billion from an all-time high a year earlier, a scheduled monthly statistics release by China’s customs authority showed on Wednesday. The last time inbound shipments fell was in 2020, when the pandemic knocked down imports by a staggering 22.3 per cent.

Mark Carney arrived in Beijing on Wednesday in the first visit to China by a Canadian prime minister since 2017.

Trip meant to heal rift

The trip is expected to focus on narrowing a years-long rift that widened in 2024 when former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau followed in the footsteps of the Biden administration and slapped 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

“China is our second-largest trading partner, and the world’s second largest economy. A pragmatic and constructive relationship between our nations will create greater stability, security, and prosperity on both sides of the Pacific,” Carney said on social media.

The visit follows a positive encounter with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in October. While the meeting produced no breakthroughs, with Chinese tariffs still shutting out Canadian canola from its biggest market, both leaders agreed to advance bilateral ties.

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said talks on the canola issue had been productive and would continue.

“We will be exploring several opportunities for collaboration between the broader populations, in addition to examining the trade and economic relationship,” she told reporters in Beijing late on Wednesday, describing bilateral ties as “complex.”

Desire to diversify from U.S.

Re-engagement with China has also been driven by a desire to diversify export markets after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada last year and suggested that the longtime U.S. ally could become the 51st U.S. state.

Ahead of Carney’s visit, Chinese state media have been quick to remind Carney of Canada’s “strategic autonomy” from its southern neighbour.

“If the Canadian side reflects on the root causes of the setbacks in bilateral relations over the past few years – the previous Justin Trudeau government’s policies to contain China in lock step with the United States – it will realize that it can avoid the same outcome by upholding its strategic autonomy in handling China-related issues,” state-run China Daily wrote in an editorial.

Under Trudeau, Ottawa stressed concerns over human rights and accused China of interfering in Canadian domestic affairs, a charge Beijing consistently rejected.

“We will continue to have difficult conversations and discuss human rights issues … at the same time, we need to continue to build the Canadian economy and to do that, we will be at the table here,” said Anand.

Chinese imports from the United States in 2025 also slumped, down 14.6 per cent from a year earlier, according to the Chinese customs data released on Wednesday.

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It is the first visit to Beijing by a Canadian prime minister since 2017 and could mark a critical shift in ties between the two countries as Canada seeks new trade and security partnerships.

Carney agreed to visit China last October when he and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in South Korea. It was an encounter that offered no breakthroughs but suggested potential for deeper ties after a fractious relationship under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which had soured after Canada arrested the chief financial officer of Chinese firm Huawei in 2018.

This time, experts expect some deals – or at least promises of future deals – to be struck. Senior Canadian officials said Carney would sign a number of memoranda that are still under discussion.

Greg MacEachern, a former senior Liberal ministerial adviser, said he expected the trip would yield results beyond mere symbolism.

“When the Prime Minister is invited to China, it is not for window dressing,” he said, adding the trip would be monitored in Washington.

“There’s a political risk this could upset President Trump, but Prime Minister Carney clearly wants to send the message that Canada is open for business. And the Canadian government has made the calculation that it’s worth it.”

Crude, canola in focus

Deals could include more exports of Canadian crude to China, according to a source informed of the discussions.

Canada exports some 90 per cent of its oil to the United States but a planned increase in U.S. oil imports from Venezuela could decrease U.S. demand for Canadian crude.

Senior Canadian officials said they expected progress but not the definitive elimination of Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola exports during the visit.

China looks forward to deepening mutual trust with Canada during the January 14-17 visit, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

“Both Canada and China want to signal their good intentions, so they each need to give away something,” said Lynette Ong, a professor of Chinese politics at the University of Toronto.

China announced preliminary anti-dumping duties on Canadian canola imports in August, escalating a year-long trade dispute that began with Ottawa’s imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports a year earlier. The tariffs have virtually eliminated all canola exports to China, which was previously the biggest export market for Canadian canola.

Ong said the EV tariff was introduced during the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden and the recent rupture in Canada’s relationship with the U.S. made keeping it unnecessary, because alignment with Washington had become less of a priority for Ottawa. China is Canada’s second-biggest trading partner after the U.S.

Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province and auto hub, urged Carney not to “back down,” saying the EV tariffs should only be lifted if China opens a manufacturing facility in Ontario.

Colin Hornby, head of the Manitoba farm group Keystone Agricultural Producers, said he did not expect an agreement to eliminate the canola tariffs during the trip but was optimistic something could happen in the coming weeks or months.

Concerns about national security, human rights

Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, warned more cooperation with China in sectors like AI and critical minerals could jeopardize Canadian security, however.

“There are clear red lines not to be crossed,” she said.

Canada has previously voiced concerns about human rights violations in China, including the jailing of pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, the secret execution of four Canadians in China last year and past interference in Canadian elections.

Cheuk Kwan, co-chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, said he hoped Canada would “not fall into the trap of appeasing China just to secure bilateral trade agreements.”

Two Canadian Members of Parliament said on Monday they were ending a trip to democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, early this week ahead of Carney’s visit to China to avoid confusion with Canada’s foreign policy.

China’s plans to welcome Carney at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, arguably the country’s grandest government building, may be part of a “charm offensive,” said Joseph Torigian, an expert in Chinese politics at American University.

Torigian suggested China might be looking to burnish its global reputation after the U.S. seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month.

“The Chinese might make a case during bilateral meetings with Canada about how unreliable the U.S. is as a partner and how dangerous they are,” Torigian said. “Whereas China is willing to help Canada expand its trade relationships outside of its hemisphere if the Canadians are willing to play ball.”

— Additional reporting by Wa Lone and Divya Rajagopal in Toronto and Ed White in Winnipeg

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The most-active rapeseed meal futures on the Zhengzhou exchange slipped 0.38 per ent to 2,334 yuan (C$464) per metric ton as of 3:41 GMT, extending losses into a third straight session.

WHY IT MATTERS: Traders anticipate Carney’s visit to China could mean movement on the trade battle over electric vehicles, canola and other agricultural goods.

Carney was expected to visit China from January 13 to January 17, his office said on Wednesday, in what would be the first visit by a Canadian prime minister since 2017.

“Carney’s visit fuelled market expectations that Canada could suspend additional tariffs on Chinese goods for a year, potentially prompting China to also pause its 100 per cent tariffs on Canadian rapeseed oil and meal,” said Zhang Deqiang, an analyst at Shandong-based Sublime China Information.

Expectations of increased supply weighed on prices, Zhang added.

China unveiled tariffs in March on more than C$3.6 billion worth of Canadian agricultural and food products, including canola oil and meal, in retaliation for levies imposed by Ottawa in October on Chinese-made electric vehicles and steel and aluminum products.

Beijing imposed preliminary duties of 75.8 per cent on Canadian canola seed imports in August, though a final ruling could result in a different rate or overturn the decision.

Canada, the world’s largest exporter of canola, shipped nearly C$5 billion worth of canola products to China in 2024, about 80 per cent of which were seeds. The steep duties on canola seed, if they remain in place, would probably all but end those imports.

Canola, or rapeseed, is crushed to produce cooking oil and other products. The meal left behind in the crushing process is used as livestock feed.

“A recent rally alongside soybean meal last week has also prompted a pullback in rapeseed meal prices this week,” said Rosa Wang, an analyst at Shanghai-based agroconsultancy JCI.

— Reporting by Ella Cao in Beijing and Naveen Thukral in Singapore

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Some from the European pork industry voiced relief at the decision though they said the tariffs would still hurt. The European Commission expressed concern, pledging to defend exporters.

WHY IT MATTERS: Canadian hog farmers face 25 per cent tariffs from China on pork — also levied in retaliation for duties on Chinese electric vehicles.

China will impose tariffs of between 4.9 per cent and 19.8 per cent on pork imports from the bloc for a five-year period starting on Wednesday, well below the 15.6 per cent-62.4 per cent imposed in a preliminary decision in September, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

Importers will receive a refund on the difference between the rates paid since September.

The decision is a partial reprieve for European producers who depend heavily on the Chinese market, especially for the offal — such as pig ears and feet — rarely eaten elsewhere.

European commission to assess WTO compliance

China’s anti-dumping investigation began in June last year and has affected major pork exporters such as Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark.

In 2024, over half of China’s $4.8 billion worth of pork imports came from the EU, with Spain leading the bloc in exports by volume.

That accounted for 17.6 per cent of EU pork exports, the second highest behind Britain, which imported a 29.7 per cent share, according to Spanish government data.

In a statement on Tuesday, the European Commission described China’s investigation as “based on questionable allegations and insufficient evidence”.

It vowed to defend EU farmers and exporters against what it called Beijing’s “abusive use of trade defence instruments” and said it was “carefully assessing all the information available against compliance with WTO rules”.

China also has an anti-subsidy investigation into European Union dairy exports that is due to report next February and has already imposed tariffs on EU brandy.

Talks on tariffs resume

China did not say why it chose to lower rates, though it said last week talks over electric vehicle tariffs had resumed. French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish King Felipe have both recently visited Beijing.

Spanish regional leaders met China’s ambassador in recent weeks to ask for lower tariffs, citing Spain’s openness to Beijing’s investment in the automotive sector, a Spanish regional government source told Reuters.

Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas told reporters that domestic industry could absorb the new rate on pork exports, welcoming what he called an element of stability for the next five years.

He also said he understood the Commission’s concerns, adding that “everything is reversible” through negotiations.

Previously, major exporters to China such as the EU and Brazil were subject to “most-favoured nation” tariffs of around 12 per cent for many pork products.

The anti-dumping duties come on top of these.

U.S. pork is subject to substantially higher tariffs.

Mixed feelings for European producers

Most Spanish firms are now subject to a relatively moderate tariff of 9.8 per cent. Spain’s Litera Meat got the lowest rate, at only 4.9 per cent — an outcome the company described as “very positive”.

Giuseppe Aloisio, head of Spanish industry group Anice, said he expected talks to continue, as the duties would hurt company margins.

In France, Anne Richard, director of pork industry association Inaporc, said there’s some relief as abattoirs that export have been recognized as cooperating and have been granted a rate of 9.8 per cent.

“Having said that, we can’t exactly rejoice at the prospect of a tax,” Richard said.

Morten Boje Hviid, the CEO of Denmark’s Agriculture and Food Council, said the final tariffs were still high and created unequal competitive conditions, generating price pressures within the EU.

China’s approach was “dividing European economic policy,” said Nemesio Sanchez, an international trade consultant specializing in Iberico pork.

Home to half the world’s pigs, China’s massive hog sector is grappling with a supply glut amid weak consumer demand. Chinese pork prices have been falling throughout 2025 and are expected to continue their decline.

Even at the lower rate, the duties could slightly ease food price deflation by raising imported pork prices.

“That will benefit Chinese pig farming companies which have reckoned with low prices for pork all year,” said Even Rogers Pay, a director at Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China.

— Reporting by Daphne Zhang, Ella Cao and Lewis Jackson in Beijing, Gus Trompiz in Paris, Emma Pinedo, David Latona and Corina Pons in Madrid, Soren Sirich Jeppesen in Copenhagen and Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels.

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The tariff commission of the State Council, or cabinet, will scrap duties of up to 15 per cent imposed on some U.S. agricultural goods from November 10, while keeping levies of 10 per cent introduced in response to President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” duties.

Investors relieved

Investors on both sides of the Pacific were relieved when Trump met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, easing fears that the world’s two largest economies might abandon talks to resolve a tariff war that has disrupted global supply chains.

Trump and the White House were quick to issue their take on the meeting, but the Chinese side did not immediately give a detailed summary of what it had agreed.

“Broadly, it’s a great sign that the two sides are making rapid progress in putting the deal into effect,” said Even Rogers Pay, a director at Beijing-based Trivium China.

“It shows they’re aligned and that the agreement is likely to hold up.”

The tariff cut nonetheless leaves Chinese buyers of U.S. soybeans facing tariffs of 13 per cent, a cost traders said makes U.S. shipments still too expensive for commercial buyers, compared to Brazilian alternatives.

“We don’t expect any demand from China to return to the U.S. market with this change,” said one trader at an international trading company. “Brazil is cheaper than the United States and even non-Chinese buyers are taking Brazilian cargoes.”

After the meeting, the White House said China would purchase at least 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans in the last two months of 2025 and at least 25 million tons in each of the next three years.

Beijing has yet to confirm those figures, and traders are watching closely for signs of large-scale purchases.

Cheaper Brazilian beans

Chinese importers recently bought 20 cargoes of cheaper Brazilian soybeans as South American prices eased on expectations of a resumption of U.S. sales to the world’s largest soybean importer.

Brazilian soybeans for December shipment are quoted at a premium of $2.25 to $2.30 (C$3.18 to $3.25) over the January Chicago contract SF26, compared with $2.40 a bushel being offered for U.S. beans shipped from the U.S. Gulf Coast, traders said.

Before last week’s meeting, state trader COFCO made China’s first purchases from this year’s U.S. harvest, an act analysts saw as a goodwill gesture.

In 2024, China bought roughly 20 per cent of its soybeans from the United States, down from 41 per cent in 2016, the year before Trump’s first presidential term, customs data showed.

Important agricultural trade partners

This year, China has largely shunned U.S. crops from the autumn harvest due to high tariffs, costing American farmers billions of dollars in lost exports.

In a meeting with a U.S. agricultural trade delegation on Tuesday, China’s senior trade negotiator Li Chenggang attributed “fluctuations” in agricultural trade between the two countries to U.S. tariffs, a summary of the meeting issued by China’s commerce ministry showed.

China and the United States are “important agricultural trade partners”, Li said, adding that he hoped Washington could work with Beijing to create favourable conditions for cooperation.

China’s cabinet said it would also suspend for one year the 24 per cent additional tariffs it imposed on U.S. goods in April.

China will also remove or suspend for a year some non-tariff retaliatory measures, including export control measures announced in March and April against some U.S. entities, the commerce ministry said on Wednesday.

— Reporting by Joe Cash, Ethan Wang and Ella Cao in Beijing, and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.

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Xi and Carney met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Gyeongju, South Korea, which was part of Carney’s tour of Asia aimed at deepening trade and security ties in the region as Canada strives to reduce its dependence on the U.S.

Why it matters: Canadian farmers currently face steep Chinese tariffs on canola, peas and pork.

The last formal meeting between the leaders of Canada and China happened in 2017 when then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a brief exchange with Xi at a meeting in San Francisco.

Canada remains embroiled in a trade dispute with the United States, its biggest trading partner.

China is Canada’s second-biggest trading partner, but recent disputes have complicated relations.

“The meeting signals a change in tone and an openness to relations at the highest levels, but this is not a return to strategic partnership,” said Vina Nadjibulla, vice president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. “Canada needs to proceed with caution because there’s nothing to suggest the Chinese Communist Party’s actions have changed since the prime minister named China as a foreign security threat.”

She said Carney should keep talking with Chinese leaders but stay mindful of China’s threats to Canada’s security interests, including its efforts to play a greater role in Arctic affairs.

Carney has previously stressed the need to restart broad engagement with China after years of worsening ties.

In recent years, Canadian citizens were detained and executed in China, and Canada’s security authorities concluded that China interfered in at least two federal elections.

Carney and Xi discussed trade issues including agriculture and agri-food products, such as canola, as well as seafood and electric vehicles, Carney’s office said.

“Prime Minister Carney accepted President Xi’s invitation to visit China at a mutually convenient time,” it said in a statement.

China announced preliminary anti-dumping duties on Canadian canola imports in August, a year after Canada said it would levy a 100 per cent tariff on imports of Chinese electric vehicles.

Xi says China is willing to work with Canada

Xi told Carney that China values Canada’s stated readiness to improve bilateral relations, according to state broadcaster CCTV, adding that China was willing to work with Canada to put ties back on track.

Earlier on Friday, Carney told a business event that the world of rules-based liberalised trade and investment had passed, adding that Canada aimed to double its non-U.S. exports over the next decade.

Nadjibulla said China should not be viewed as the solution to Canada’s issues with the U.S., however.

“We should not diversify away from the U.S. and go deeper into China,” she said. “Canada’s overdependence on both the U.S. and China has been shown to be a vulnerability we cannot afford.”

— Reporting by Joyce Lee in Seoul and Ethan Wang in Beijing; Additional reporting by Maria Cheng in Ottawa.

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Carney, who discussed trade issues with Chinese Premier Li Qiang last month, said Canada was restarting what he called a broad engagement with Beijing. Bilateral ties over the past few years have been poor.

Why it matters: China has imposed tariffs on Canadian canola, peas and pork in apparent retaliation against Canadian EV tariffs.

Canadian officials say Carney could hold a first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a trip to two Asian summits later this month.

“I expect to meet the senior Chinese leadership in the coming month or so and we’ll continue those discussions, and we’ll see where the trade relationship evolves,” Carney told a televised press conference.

China announced preliminary anti-dumping duties on Canadian canola imports in August, a year after Canada said it would slap a 100 per cent tariff on imports of Chinese electric vehicles.

China’s ambassador to Canada said over the weekend that if Ottawa lifted the measures against vehicles, Beijing would drop the duties on canola.

Carney, asked whether such a deal might happen, said the two nations were talking about “a much broader range of issues than single sectors and single trades”.

He added: “It’s naive to take a relationship that is broader, and can broaden, and to boil it down to two things … There are a deeper set of conversations that are going on, so it’s not that simple.”

Canada, he said, would also have to take into account how the United States, which is locked in a trade war with Beijing, might react to any move Ottawa made on auto tariffs.

— Reporting by David Ljunggren and Promit Mukherjee

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In case you’ve not been following along on our website, Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sept. 5 rolled out a long list of measures, mostly in the usual federal form of eight-, nine- or 10-figure investments over multiple years, to try to “protect, build and transform Canadian strategic industries.” For canola processors, those measures will include amendments to Canada’s Clean Fuel Regulations and “a time-limited production incentive for renewable diesel and biodiesel producers,” in the form of $370 million over two years (January 2026 through December 2027), paid out on a per-litre basis to Canadian producers of biodiesel and renewable diesel, up to 300 million litres per facility. Crushers are also eligible for funds via the Regional Tariff Response Initiative, which was set up in March against Donald Trump’s tariff spree and is now being expanded. One example of eligible costs was for a canola processor to hire sales reps or attend trade shows in diversified export markets.

For canola sellers, meanwhile, the feds will put up another $75 million in AgriMarketing funds over five years starting in 2026-27 to boost Canadian agri-foods’ profile in “high-growth areas such as Africa, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific,” particularly for “sectors most affected by trade barriers, like canola.”

And for canola growers, the interest-free portion of cash advances under the Advance Payments Program will temporarily be doubled to $500,000 from now through the 2026 program year. Now, that increase is specifically for advances on canola — and, as the feds note, canola growers represent about 41 per cent of APP users.

That’s still an understandably underwhelming offer from canola growers’ point of view.

“Farmers should not be expected to borrow their way out of this situation,” Rick White of the Canadian Canola Growers Association says, adding the APP was “not designed to provide the required support canola farmers need under this situation.” And he’s right, of course: interest-free or not, the farmer’s gotta pay that back, out of a canola crop for which he or she is now likely to get less than originally expected.

Like it or not, though, the feds met a long-lowered bar for expectations here. Successive federal governments for about three decades now have been working to get out of the ad-hoc payment business — so whether any existing ag programs fit the bill or not, it’s hardly surprising when the feds try to shoehorn problems into one or more of those. And not even a disaster-based program like AgriRecovery was meant to kick in when a capricious customer, whose buying decisions generally involve market-moving amounts of product, takes offense on an unrelated matter.

Back on the biofuel side: the canola industry says it’s “encouraged there will be some support for biofuel production” but also says the proposed incentive “does not go far enough and will not drive meaningful additional domestic demand for canola.” Further, Canada’s canola group reps say the changes to the Clean Fuel Regulations “provide no clarity on disincentivizing fuels made from possibly adulterated foreign used cooking oil.”

On the used cooking oil issue: fair enough. It’s straight-up logical that any rules on farmed fuels should support nearby domestic production. The alternative is burning tons of diesel to truck in dodgy feedstocks from far away, just to make more fuel, to move more feedstocks, rinse and repeat.

On the demand side, though, I’ll be interested to see whether this incentive is set up in a way that allows not-yet-built Canadian biofuel projects to benefit. I’m thinking, very specifically, of the proposed Regina biofuel plant that Federated Co-operatives shelved earlier this year, and the shelved joint-venture FCL/AGT crush plant that would have fed it.

In the bigger picture, though, I’ll admit I’m disappointed that the feds resorted to biofuel policy as a support for the canola sector here. Since the first Trump administration, when exemptions from U.S. biofuel blending requirements for smaller fuel refineries became a political flashpoint in that country, our southern neighbour has been a cautionary tale about what happens when a domestic farm commodity gets tied too closely to an end-use that exists mainly at politicians’ pleasure. That’s not even to mention the larger ethical issue of burning fuel year after year over limited acres to grow crops to go right back into the tanks of cars, trucks, tractors, combines, trains and planes.

Don’t get me wrong, folks, grow whatever you want. Feed-grade byproducts like DDGs or oilseed meal aside, though, it just seems to me like we’ve lost the plot whenever we start talking about growing crops whose main intended use isn’t food, or even to feed food.

And speaking of politicians’ pleasure, what should happen if the whole trade drama gets resolved by the time you read this? Sometime between when I sat down to start writing and now, federal Ag Minister Heath McDonald went on the record as saying the possible removal or easing of Canada’s tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) is “certainly something that we’re looking at” while still keeping other Canadian trade matters in mind.

We know how quickly China can drop its trade barriers once it gets what it wants, so if that somehow comes to pass, will all of Ottawa’s proposed new supports and amendments still even be on the table?

As always, drop me a line with any questions, comments or concerns — or your answers to my questions.

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