Saskatchewan premier calls on Prime Minister Carney to meet with China’s Xi on canola

OTTAWA — Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said Thursday that he wants Prime Minister Mark Carney to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping to resolve the trade issues that have led to steep tariffs on Canadian canola products.

“It isn’t going to be Premier Moe and President Xi that stand up and say, ‘We’ve come to a trade deal here and everything is good moving forward,'” he said.

Moe said he will be in China in the next couple of weeks to engage with officials there, but he believes Carney and Xi are the only two people who can ultimately resolve the trade dispute.

“There will be opportunities for the president and the prime minister to meet, I think, when you look at the global calendar of events,” he told reporters after a meeting with industry groups and federal government representatives in Saskatoon.

Federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald joined the meeting virtually, along with Buckley Belanger, Saskatchewan’s representative in cabinet. Moe said MacDonald was planning to be in Saskatoon but was not able to get there because of airline disruptions.

Both Carney and Xi are expected to be at the G20 meetings in South Africa in November. The Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation leaders’ forum is also being held in South Korea the same month.

Moe said Thursday’s meeting, which included canola producers and exporters, also included discussions about the challenges with Canada’s top export market for canola, the U.S.

China imposed a tariff of nearly 76 per cent on canola seed last week, causing the price of one of Canada’s most valuable crops to fall and wiping out millions of dollars in its value.

It comes one year after China launched an anti-dumping investigation into Canadian canola, a move in response to Canada’s 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, batteries and other products.

In response to the Canadian tariffs China has also imposed a 100 per cent tariff on Canadian canola meal and oil.

Kody Blois, Carney’s parliamentary secretary, said the prime minister plans to be in Western Canada in the coming weeks, “convening stakeholders and the Western premiers about what we can do to support the industry moving forward.”

“There are a number of options on the table that we could take in the short term to help support the industry from a regulatory side, things that industry has been calling for, whether at the producer level or the processor level,” he said.

While canola futures are up, Blois said, “there’s a lot of uncertainty.”

Blois said a Joint Economic and Trade Commission meeting is set for next week. That meeting was the result of Carney’s bilateral discussion in June with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

“This is an opportunity for Canadian authorities and Chinese authorities to engage on what we see as differences around trade,” Blois said.

Canada exports nearly $15 billion of canola seed, oil and meal per year, and nearly $5 billion of that went to China in 2024.

SaskOilseeds chair Dean Roberts, who was at the Thursday meeting, said farmers are being “used as a pawn in the current geo-political environment.” He joined Moe’s call for urgent federal action.

“Unprecedented market closure amidst an already stressful time of year has a compounding adverse effect on farmers,” he said in a statement released by Moe’s office.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2025.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press