Canadian farm, food products gets new tariffs from China

China said Saturday it would slap tariffs on Canadian products including rapeseed oil and pork, after a Beijing probe into levies imposed by Ottawa on Chinese goods last year.

Beijing’s commerce ministry said it would hit imported rapeseed oil, oil cakes, and peas from Canada with a 100 percent tariff.

Aquatic products and pork will face a 25 percent levy.

The measures will come into effect on March 20, Beijing said.

Ottawa last August placed 100 percent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports, matching US measures seeking to fend off a flood of Chinese state-subsidized cars into North America.

It also announced a surtax on imports of steel and aluminum products from China.

Beijing’s commerce ministry said a probe into those measures found that Canadian policies “disrupted the normal trade order and harmed the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises”.

“China urges Canada to immediately correct its bad practices, lift its restrictive measures and eliminate its negative effects,” a ministry spokesperson said.

Canada is among the world’s top producers of canola — an oilseed crop that is used to make cooking oil, animal feed and biodiesel fuel — and China has historically been one of its largest customers.

But bilateral ties plunged into a deep freeze for several years from 2018, when Canada detained Meng Wanzhou, a top executive from Chinese tech giant Huawei, prompting Beijing to arrest two Canadian nationals in retaliation.

And the fresh tariffs come as both Canada and China face deepening trade tensions with the United States, which under President Donald Trump has launched blistering new tariffs.

AFP