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Canadian canola exports to China—worth roughly $5 billion annually, most of it seed—face a 75.8 percent Chinese tariff, according to Statistics Canada figures. This is a relevant backdrop when considering whether Beijing should be allowed to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, writes Ed Fast [in The Hub].

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Bill Hawkins, head of trade and investment at Sussex Strategy Group and a former chief of staff to Canada’s minister of international trade, described China’s approach as deliberate economic coercion. “They basically put in place tariffs that will kill our trade into that country, and they’ve indicated they could remove them at any time, which, of course, is some really strategic leverage, economic coercion,” Hawkins observed. He noted that despite the United States leading the charge on EV tariffs with 100 percent duties imposed in May 2024, China chose to focus its retaliation primarily on Canada rather than the U.S.

The pattern of targeting Canada specifically echoes Beijing’s response to the 2018-2019 Huawei executive extradition dispute, when China imposed canola tariffs and detained two Canadian citizens. Canada’s EV tariff decision was itself part of coordinated G7 efforts to counter Chinese subsidization and oversupply strategies in strategic industries, yet Ottawa bore the brunt of Beijing’s retaliation while the United States faced comparatively little pushback.

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Ottawa should oppose China’s accession to the CPTPP [Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership] until Beijing demonstrates sustained, verifiable compliance with existing multilateral trade obligations, he [Fast] argued.

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