The chair of Alberta Canola has a simple message for the federal government: go talk to China.

There has been a reprieve for Canada’s and Alberta’s canola industry after U.S. President Donald Trump announced Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) compliant goods, including Canadian-produced canola and canola products, would not be subject to tariffs for now.

But China? That’s another matter, says Andre Harpe.

“That is a huge, huge factor for us,” he explains. “China is our second-biggest market, and our second-biggest customer. We do about $ 5 billion a year in trade with them, and the oil and the canola meal are roughly a quarter of that.”

“We’re still working with them. We are still doing some trading with them. But since last fall, we’ve probably lost close to 20 % of the value of our canola.”

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Last fall, China imposed a 100% tariff rate on Canadian canola oil and meal, the result of its anti-discrimination investigation launched after the federal government slapped tariffs on Chinese-made EVs, steel and aluminum.

Harpe says there’s been no bounceback, and it doesn’t help that the U.S. has escalated the trade war. “Obviously, with the markets and what’s happening in the U.S, our prices have been bouncing all over the place.”

Harpe says it’s only a matter of time before the situation becomes untenable.

“The longer this carries on, I guess we’re slowly going to have to start looking at compensation,” he says. “It gets back to us being used in a tariff war. If we’re on the front line, we need to be compensated for it. That’s what we’re going to have to start looking for.”

For now, canola producers are focused on the new season, but Harpe admits they’re keeping a watchful eye on the ongoing trade and tariff drama.

“We’re making sure we get our crop in and get it going nicely. But, we’re really going to have to see what happens with the markets next fall because a lot of this year’s crop has already been sold. At the same time, when we start selling next year’s crop, that’s when it’s going to be very untenable.”

Despite calls to remedy the situation with China, there has been little to no movement on the canola file at the federal level, as all parties are currently on the campaign trail ahead of the April 28 election.