The Chinese government has announced an anti-dumping investigation into Canadian canola imports, RealAgriculture reported.
The move was part of a series of actions announced by the Chinese government on 3 September in response to the Canadian government’s plan to introduce a 100% tax on Chinese electric vehicle (EV) imports and a 25% tax on Chinese steel and aluminium, the report on the same date said.
China had previously banned canola imports from Canada’s two largest exporters Richardson and Vittera – from March 2019 to May 2022 – following Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on an extradition request by the USA, RealAgriculture wrote.
China’s Ministry of Commerce was quoted as saying it was launching the anti-dumping investigation to safeguard domestic businesses after annual canola seed imports from Canada increased by 170% in 2023, the first full year following the lifting of the embargo.
“We will take all necessary measures to defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” a ministry spokesperson said.
The Canola Council of Canada (CCC) was working closely with the Canadian government while waiting for further details on the investigation, the report said.
“China is an important and valued market for Canadian canola,” CCC president and CEO Chris Davison was quoted as saying.
“We are confident that an investigation into Canada’s canola trade with China will demonstrate alignment with, and reinforce our support for, rules-based trade.”
Canada’s agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay said the country’s canola producers depended on a rules-based global trading order.
“I am working with my colleagues across government and in the sector to monitor developments closely,” MacAulay was quoted as saying in a statement.
“We will continue to defend and support the sector every step of the way.”
According to Statistics Canada, exports of canola seed to China in the 2023 calendar year totalled almost 4.6M tonnes, up from 2.2M tonnes in 2022 but below the 4.8M tonne volume shipped in 2018, prior to the last canola trade disruption with China.
In the first six months of this year, 2.7M tonnes of canola seed were shipped from Canada to China.
