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Saskatchewan’s premier has shared a letter his ministers of trade and agriculture wrote to their federal counterparts in Ottawa, expressing concerns about a 30 per cent tariff India is imposing on yellow pea imports.
In the letter, the Saskatchewan ministers said India is “an incredibly important market for Saskatchewan,” noting that the province shipped $480 million in pea exports to the country last year.
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Last year, Saskatchewan farmers grew 1.53 million tonnes of peas, the latter noted, which accounts for 51 per cent of all of Canada’s production.
“Now, more than ever, Saskatchewan’s and Canada’s producers and exporters need certainty,” the letter read.
“We urge the federal government to immediately engage with India to address this issue and negotiate an agreement to ensure trade certainty for the agricultural sector.”
The duties from India will be another blow to Saskatchewan’s producers, who took a hit earlier this year when China imposed hefty tariffs on Canadian canola products, along with pork and seafood products.
The tariffs imposed by China are widely seen as a response to Canada’s hefty import tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, and Moe has previously called on the federal government to take action to protect Canada’s $43 billion canola industry by engaging directly with the Chinese government.
“Our federal government cannot sacrifice a $43 billion canola industry… to protect a fledgling electric vehicle industry largely based in eastern Canada,” Moe told reporters in August.
The provincial ministers reiterated that message in their letter on Thursday.
“It is imperative that the federal government act swiftly with India and China to find a solution that will avoid unnecessary hardship on Canadian producers and industry,” the letter read.
But while they’re calling on Ottawa to take action, the provincial ministers noted that Saskatchewan and India have a good trade relationship, and the provincial government will be working to engage directly with the Indian government on the tariff issue.
“Now is the time to rely on and strengthen these relationships to come to a resolution to remove any additional tariffs on Canadian peas,” the letter read.
“An official from our Ministry of Trade and Export Development will be back in market next week, starting Monday, November 3, 2025, which will be a timely visit.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney, however, has struggled so far in his efforts to remove tariffs imposed on Canadian goods by the United States, China and other countries. Most recently, trade talks with the United States came to a screeching halt after President Donald Trump took issue with television ads critical of his tariff policies aired by the Government of Ontario.
Carney is currently on a trip to Asia, and is expected to meet with Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, later this week. That meeting follows a comment by Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, who said Canada was in a “strategic partnership” with China last week.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct an error around the letter’s authorship.
