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Over the past several weeks, while Saskatchewan canola producers have been frustrated and worried about tariffs on their products heading to China, the Sask. NDP wants to know what the provincial government’s trade office in China has been doing.
“The tariff situation, instead of getting better, has only gotten worse over the last number of months and producers out there right now are rightly wondering where, exactly, our government has been and what they’ve been doing,” said NDP Leader Carla Beck on Tuesday.
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After Ottawa imposed a tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles, steel and aluminum last year Beijing retaliated with tariffs on Canadian canola meal and oil, as well as on peas, seafood and pork. This month China added a tariff on canola seed.
Beck said the government should be putting expectations and performance goals on all the trade offices, to make sure it’s getting bang for the taxpayer’s buck.
She pointed to a recent provincial auditor’s report, which said there weren’t strong enough tools to evaluate the work of trade offices. It came to the conclusion that targets for key performance indicators need to be established, and satisfaction needs to be measured for all parties working with the offices.
The auditor’s office recommended that there be public reporting of trade office performance.
The report also mentioned the areas where trade offices were operating showed significant increases in the value of provincial trade exports.
Trade offices value questioned
Though the NDP has criticized the expense of trade offices in the past, Beck said the party is just questioning the value the province is getting from them.
She said without proper reporting, goals, key performance measures, and indicators, there is some concern about whether government is getting the best value.
Beck put the same idea to Premier Scott Moe’s upcoming trip to China. She said the premier needs to release his objectives and goals for the mission.
She said she would want to see that the premier is talking to as many people as he could in his time there, with the ultimate goal of having the tariffs removed by the time he leaves.
“You don’t go in hoping for somewhere in the middle, you go in hoping for those tariffs to be removed. That’s certainly what producers in this province want to see,” said Beck.
If there’s no deal by the time Moe and his team get back, Beck said next steps need to be looked at, like compensation for canola producers.
Moe looking to get Canada and China together
Premier Scott Moe said the goal of his trip to China is to advance the opportunities for Prime Minister Mark Carney and President Xi Jinping to get together and work out a deal.
“This isn’t about judging who is doing what — this is about everybody doing what they can in the greater good of Canadian trade,” said Moe.
It’s not yet known whether any federal ministers or the Prime Minister will join Moe on the trade mission — he said they’re just reaching out now. But Moe also said his government is working closely with the federal government on who they should be meeting with and how to represent in that market.
“We’re going to go and we’re going to engage with some of those relations that we have through the trade office, through my previous time in China,” said Moe.
Moe went on a trade mission to China in 2018. Travel expenses for that trip were around $94,000.
The premier reiterated that it won’t be him signing any trade deal while there — it will have to be Carney and Xi, but in his meetings, he’ll be looking to find out how he can advocate for engagement between the two national leaders to happen sooner rather than later.
Moe leaves for China on Sept. 6.
— with files from Canadian Press
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