As the trade war continues, Canada’s agricultural sector is urging more needs to be done to protect the domestic industry, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
The CFIB says the vast majority (88 per cent) of its agricultural business members want Canada to strengthen trade ties with other countries besides the United States and China.
They say the current measures aimed at providing supports to those impacted by trade tensions including tariffs aren’t going far enough.
“(Farmers) are doing their best to diversify their trade partners,” says Juliette Nicolaÿ, bilingual policy analyst at the CFIB.
“But it’s always complicated, and you don’t do that overnight. So that’s why we need, in the meantime, some support from the government.”
The CFIB says 36 per cent of Canadian agri-businesses have been impacted by the Chinese tariffs with one in four directly impacted, and in most cases, smaller and medium-sized enterprises are feeling the largest impact from current trade tensions.
In a letter to the federal government, the CFIB has called for lower taxes and red tape, ensuring support programs properly address the scope of the current challenges and assist agricultural businesses in navigating new markets.
This comes just over a month after tariffs imposed by China sink in, which includes a 100 per cent duty on Canadian rapeseed oil, oil cakes and peas, and an additional 25 per cent tariff for pork and aquatic products.
The measures were introduced in response to the Canadian government’s tariffs on China in October of last year, including for Chinese-made electric vehicles as well as steel and aluminum products.
China’s ambassador to Canada said on Wednesday that Beijing is offering to form a partnership with Canada to push back against American “bullying,” suggesting the two countries could rally other nations to stop Washington from undermining global rules.
“We want to avoid the situation where humanity is brought back to a world of the law of the jungle again,” Chinese Ambassador Wang Di told The Canadian Press in a wide-ranging interview.
However, Roland Paris, who leads the University of Ottawa’s graduate school of international affairs, told The Canadian Press that Beijing has long sought to reshape international institutions to advance its own interests — efforts that often have put China at odds with Ottawa’s foreign policy.
He said Canadian businesses should take a cautious approach to China, where they still face the risk of import bans and arbitrary detainment.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
“The mercenary use of tariffs and non-tariff barriers that we’re seeing from the Trump administration has been practised for a long time by China in different forms,” Paris said.
“China has played its own version of hardball and abused trade rules in the past to coerce countries, including Canada, that have dared to displease Beijing.”
What options are there to help farmers?
To help support the agri-business sector from large margin declines, the federal government introduced the AgriStability program in 2007 to provide financial assistance to impacted farmers.
Although there have since been multiple enhancements to the program, the CFIB says when it comes to recent trade tensions and tariffs with the United States and especially China, these supports may not be going far enough.
“AgriStability is a good first step,” says Nicolaÿ, noting, “most of the time, those big programs are more tailored to bigger farms than smaller ones.”
The timelines for these supports are also a point of frustration.
Nicolaÿ says, “We have heard from members that have the experience of having the AgriStability program delivered six months or a year after the event, which is way too late.”
The CFIB says the government also needs to do more for farmers, especially smaller producers, to help navigate around tariff issues by finding alternative markets to export.
For example, the letter from the CFIB describes how in Western Canada canola producers are struggling to find new buyers and face the risk of having unsold products while seeding for new crops is about to occur in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile on the East Coast, lobster fishers are facing uncertainty and risk of losing product because China is Canada’s second largest fish and seafood export market.
“Combined, (the United States and China) represent more than half of Canada’s canola exports,” said Jasmin Guénette, CFIB’s vice-president of national affairs.
“As a result of the trade disruptions, our agri-businesses risk having unsold inventory and some are already losing foreign buyers. They need clarity on how to move forward and plan their operations.”
With the federal election just days away, farmers are going to be focused on the platforms aimed at providing the best outlook for them.
Last week, Keith Currie, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said more needs to be done by leaders campaigning to help the rural communities that agricultural businesses operate in.
“The opportunities that are being missed is what really concerns us because the agriculture and food sector is the largest manufacturing sector in the country, and so in order to manufacture you have to produce,” he told Global News.
Currie said if leaders want to commit to rural regions, infrastructure is key.
That includes a focus on updating ports and rail lines to get products where they need to go.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
