John Cairns
SASKATOON — Premier Scott Moe is set to head off with a provincial delegation on a crucial trade mission to China starting on Sept. 6.
Premier Moe’s delegation will be in China from Sept. 6 to 9 followed by a trade mission to Japan. While Moe is in China, Minister of Trade and Export Development Warren Kaeding will be in South Korea on a trade mission there, before also joining Moe’s delegation in Japan.
The trade mission was prompted by the tariffs imposed by China on canola, the latest being the 75.8 per cent tariffs on canola seed last month. That is in addition to 100 per cent tariffs on canola oil and meal imposed a few months earlier.
The latest tariffs have sparked alarm in the province about the impact to Saskatchewan’s canola sector. Other products like peas and pork have also been impacted by tariffs from China.
Premier Moe told reporters in Saskatoon on Sept. 4 that his government has “heard and we have listened specifically to Saskatchewan producers as well as those businesses that are involved in exporting Saskatchewan agri-food and ingredients around the world.”
“… What we heard is these Chinese tariffs, whether it be on seed, whether it be on oil, as well as peas, pork, and more broadly on Canadian seafood, they need to be addressed and they need to be addressed not only by the province of Saskatchewan but by the nation of Canada.”
Moe said they had been “working with our federal government closely” on what their mission might entail and what the targets are. But observers had been in suspense about whether the Feds would actually join the trade mission — suspense that finally lifted on Thursday morning.
The breaking news was confirmation by Prime Minister Mark Carney that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Kody Blois, will join the trip to China. Blois had been in Saskatoon for the federal-provincial meetings a couple of weeks earlier in response to the tariffs, at which time Moe announced plans to go to China.
Moe said he was “very pleased” with the announcement that Blois will be going.
“He'll be joining us in our mission in China and that is a positive, I think, not only for the mission but a positive in the broader opportunities that we might have with a country like China, so thank you to Prime Minister Carney for prioritizing this mission and ensuring that we are working together so that Kody Blois, his parliamentary secretary, can join us.”
Moe also said he was pleased to see the Carney government and the Premier of China reactivate the Joint Economic Trade Commission, which he said had sat dormant for a number of years. “This again, I would say, is a positive step in the broader opportunities that may lie ahead for our two countries.”
As for the mission itself, Moe said their mission in China will “focus on both meetings with Chinese government officials as well as industry stakeholders who are directly impacted by the tariffs as they come into place.”
Following his time to China, Moe said he will meet up with Minister Kaeding in Japan for the second part of the mission, which he called “an important market for a number of Saskatchewan goods, not just agri-food goods or ingredients but a number of Saskatchewan goods but also canola.”
During the time that Moe is in China, Minister Kaeding will be in South Korea looking at market opportunities there. Kaeding told reporters that starting in South Korea, they weee “going to be engaging with a number of trade, industry, energy partners there as well as engaging in industry roundtables. We’re going to be talking CCUS (carbon capture utilization and storage), nuclear, and while we're there we're also going to be witnessing an extension that VIDO has with their infectious disease organization in South Korea.
“So again just building relationships, continuing to engage with all the industry partners that we have that are established and looking for further opportunities in South Korea and then virtually doing the same in Japan, engaging with a number of Japanese ministries.”
Moe said they will be meeting in China with a number of government or ministry organizations, and those will be opened up for Parliamentary Secretary Blois to join as well. Moe adds that with Japan they were looking at a further deepening of trade relations, and opportunities around canola and value-added agricultural as well as potash, uranium, and discussion on liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Premier Moe said it will be a relatively small delegation of government officials joining them to China, Japan and South Korea. When asked if other industry groups or the Chamber of Commerce were also coming Moe said they were not, acknowledging the tight timelines to put the mission together.
But he said there were “some active discussions” potentially for a larger mission for economic or industry engagement perhaps by the end of the year.
“There is some discussion of that potentially happening in the future, but on this particular mission with the time frames that it took to put together we were actually quite pleased to see that Parliamentary Secretary Blois was able to get his paperwork in order to join us there,” said Moe.
What would be a successful mission
On whether the trade mission will achieve the goal of resolving the tariff dispute between the two countries, Moe reiterated to reporters what he has said before — that it “isn't going to be myself, the Premier of Saskatchewan and the President of China, that are going to stand up at the end of this mission and say here we have a trade deal — it needs to be the Prime Minister of Canada. And what we are making every effort to do is to bring the opportunity for that conversation of a closer trading relationship between Canada and specifically Saskatchewan agriculture and China to pull that meeting forward and to bring those conversations forward.”
As for what he would consider a success for the trade mission, Moe said “I think the fact that we're going is a positive.”
“If we were able to return and to be a step in the process of bringing the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of China closer to having those discussions about moving forward, not just with respect to canola, pulse crops, pork or seafood, but actually moving forward on a discussion on what opportunities might lie ahead for us and in a broader trade relationship… So a success is for us to continue taking steps in that broader trade opportunities that we might have with a country like China, as well as Japan and South Korea.”
