Trump's latest tariff threats 'further degradation' of fair trade system: Sask. premier

The latest tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump feel like going "back to Square 1" on trade uncertainty, says a Saskatchewan ag services company CEO, while the province's premier says they damage a fair trade system "we took for granted for decades."

In a Saturday morning social media post, Trump said he would impose a 100 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods entering the U.S. if Canada "makes a deal with China."

He did not specify what "a deal" means.

Last week, Canada reached an agreement with China to allow 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles into the market at a lowered tariff rate of 6.1 per cent, in exchange for China lowering tariffs on Canadian canola seed and halting "anti-discrimination" tariffs on Canadian canola meal, lobsters, crabs and peas until at least the end of the year.

The threats also come after a speech Prime Minister Mark Carney made at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, which did not name Trump specifically, but said "American hegemony" and "great powers" are using economic integration as "weapons."

In a statement sent to CBC just before noon Saturday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said Trump's latest threat "is further degradation of the free and fair-trade system we took for granted for decades."

He noted that last week, Trump "called the Canada-China agreement a 'good thing' and a deal that Canada 'should be doing.'"

Moe's statement said Canada "must continue to be pragmatic when dealing with other countries" and "work together to secure the best trade deals wherever possible."

"The China-Canada trade deal does just that and is a good deal for Canada," Moe's statement said.

He also said Canada has to work to maintain the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade agreement, or CUSMA, saying "it's a good deal not only for Canada, but for North America."

Saskatchewan has a lot at stake in the deal with China, producing approximately 12.2 million metric tonnes of canola last year — more than half of Canada’s total 21.8 million metric tonnes of output, according to Statistics Canada.

Dean Roberts, a western Saskatchewan farmer and the board chair for Sask Oilseeds — an advocacy group for Saskatchewan canola and flax growers — said Saturday's tariff threat is the latest factor in a "very unsettling time" for producers.

"We have an elephant on either side of us — the United States and China, both very important markets for our crops," said Roberts. 

"We're coming into the spring planting season. We are going to have to make some decisions pretty soon about what we put in the ground.… I think any disruption into our largest market would be deeply concerning."

Roberts says he was happy to see an agreement with China last week, but it seems there is very little stability in his industry now.

"I would dearly love to wake up one day in July and have my biggest concern be grasshoppers," he said.

"I have tools to manage grasshoppers. I don't really have tools to manage geopolitical risks."

Monty Reich, the CEO of South West Terminal — which provides grain marketing and crop input services in southwestern Saskatchewan — says all producers can do is keep an eye on the market as it opens Monday morning.

"It sounds like we're almost back to Square 1 in the uncertainty of trade into the U.S.," said Reich.

"The U.S. has obviously felt that there were some words that Canada has said that are not as friendly to them, and here we are — back to threats once again, back to uncertainty."

Reich said politics are playing the biggest role in the agriculture market right now, contributing to other challenges farmers face.

"In Western Canada farming, commodity prices are down, the inputs are high," said Reich.

"There's not a great margin on farms, land prices are high.… It's very stressful on farms and stressful on the industry, and again, it comes back to the uncertainty."