Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson speaks to media Thursday during an announcement at the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede grounds.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
The province’s minister of agriculture says Ottawa needs to immediately find a seat at the bargaining table with its largest trading partners following Monday’s election.
During a press conference in Medicine Hat on Thursday afternoon, RJ Sigurdson, minister of agriculture and irrigation, said the next party to form federal government needs to focus on finding immediate resolutions to ongoing trade disputes that are impacting Alberta producers.
Sigurdson cites Chinese tariffs placed on select Canadian canola products, including oil and meal, along with other agricultural commodities placed in March as retaliation to tariffs Ottawa placed on Chinese electric vehicles, steel and aluminum in 2024.
“We saw EV tariffs that benefit central Canada that have affected our canola growers in Western Canada. We need an immediate resolution to that,” said Sigurdson. “We also need Ottawa to step up to the plate and support our canola growers through this tough time.”
Last year, China was the country’s second largest export market for Canadian canola products at approximately $4.9 billion.
Additionally, Canadian canola producers are dealing with an anti-dumping investigation initiated by China in September 2024 that aims to determine if Canadian canola seed is being dumped on the Chinese market, and is also believed to be retaliatory action against Canadian EV tariffs.
“Both the anti-dumping investigation and the most recent escalation by China to 100 per cent tariffs on canola cake and meal, and additional tariffs on pork and peas, are not good for our agricultural industry,” the minister told the News. “Whoever forms the next federal government here in Canada, they need to come to the table and find an immediate resolution and get to the table with China.”
Another partner sitting at that bargaining table needs to be the U.S., says Siguardson.
“Our largest trading partner as it relates to agriculture is the U.S., over $9 billion heads south, it’s a critical relationship.”
Earlier in April, Siguardson travelled to Washington, D.C. to discuss the importance of free trade in North America among growing tensions brought on by the Trump administration. During his trip the minister met with representatives and stakeholders from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, North American Meat Institute and the American Farm Bureau.
“We’ve seen immense positive response to those conversations, educating decision makers in the U.S. so that they understand how integrated our food supply chain is,” he said.
“We are starting to see a shift in the U.S. to supporting and making sure we’re protecting the CUSMA (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement) that has been so beneficial to food security and food affordability across North America.”
A portion of that free-trade agreement, signed in 2018 and enacted in 2020, looks to benefit North America farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses by modernizing and strengthening food and agriculture trade within the three counties.
“My message would be that we do have to protect that agreement,” Sigurdson said. “It’s to the best interest of our agricultural primary producers here and our agri processors, but also every consumer that’s walking into a grocery store and buys groceries right now, at a time where they’ve seen a lot of inflationary pressures over the past few years.”
