“It’s a huge step forward, but a little disappointing at the same time.”

That’s how Stephen Vandervalk, who grows canola near Fort McLeod, Alta. and is also vice-president of the Wheat Growers Association, reacted to news of the preliminary trade deal between Canada and China.

The agreement, announced Friday, following a meeting between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Beijing, is expected to slash punishing tariffs on the sale of Canadian agriculture and seafood products to China, part of a tit-for-tat tariff war between the two countries.

It started in the summer of 2024, when Canada announced a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric automobiles that Ottawa claimed were being dumped on global markets.

China responded in 2025 with tariffs of up to 100 per cent on some Canadian canola products, along with a 25 per cent levy on Canadian pork and seafood products.

The deal announced Friday is expected to result in Beijing slashing duties on canola seed to 15 per cent by March 1, 2026, in return for Canada allowing 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles to be sold in Canada at a tariff of just 6.1 per cent. That number will increase to about 70,000 vehicles within five years.

Ottawa also expects to have tariffs on Canadian canola meal, lobsters, crabs and peas reduced or removed from March 1 until at least the end of the year.

6:41
Carney welcomes ‘new era’ of Canada-China relations following ‘historic agreement’ with Xi Jinping

While Vandervalk called the agreement “a huge step forward,” he also expressed “cautious optimism,” saying a 15 per cent tariff on canola meal means Canada could still struggle to be competitive with other countries, like Australia, that can sell the same products to the Chinese market.

He’s also concerned about how Americans will react to the deal because the 100 per cent tariff on Chinese EVs was put in place by both Canada and the U.S. to help protect the North American auto industry.

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“They’re our biggest trading partner for sure, they take almost all of our canola meal.  When you crush canola seed, you get oil, and you get meal. So a huge market is our canola meal and oil and seed everything into the U.S., so it’s for sure much, much larger than China,” said Vandervalk.

“So if we somehow get a little bit of access to China at the expense of having potentially no access to our largest trading partner, we have huge concerns with that,” added Vandervalk.

In an emailed statement, the Canola Council of Canada and Canadian Canola Growers Association called news of the deal on tariffs, “an important milestone in Canada’s trading relationship with China.”

“The Canadian canola industry has been clear since the outset that these tariffs are a political issue requiring a political solution. We are pleased to see significant progress in restoring market access for seed and meal and will continue to build on this development by working to achieve permanent and complete tariff relief, including for canola oil, moving forward,” reads the statement.

Andre Harpe, Chair of the Alberta Canola Producers, who farms near Grand Prairie, Alta., called the tentative agreement “great news.”

“I was up at three o’clock this morning looking at the announcement and I did happen to glance at the prices then and they were up quite a bit. So it was a good response to see from the market,” said Harpe.

“I’m really, really hoping things settle down a little bit, but it’s been a roller-coaster ride. It’s been absolutely terrible. The uncertainty, you know,” added Harpe.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who accompanied the Prime Minister on his trip to China and spoke to Global News from there, was almost euphoric in his reaction to the agreement, calling it “a good day for Canadians.”

“This is very significant. It is going to literally allow billions of dollars of agricultural products of all kinds, whether it’s canola, pulse crops, seafood, to flow again, which was not moving in any way to our second largest trading partner in the world,” said Moe. “So this is an absolute deal of tremendous significance to not only the Canadian agriculture industry, but to the Canadian economy.”

“Not only does this restore trade that was existing, but it definitely provides a very foundation for us build additional trade opportunities with not only a country like China, but many Asian countries in the area,” added Moe.

Federal Conservative labour critic, Kyle Seeback, who represents the riding of Dufferin-Caledon in southern Ontario, the centre of Canada’s automobile manufacturing industry, characterized the trade deal as a double-edged sword.

“I think that if you’re a canola farmer, you’re cautiously optimistic. I think if you are an auto worker in Canada, you’re extremely worried about what this is going to mean for the Canadian auto sector,” said Seeback.

He’s also concerned that, so far, China has only agreed to lower tariffs until the end of 2026.

“We’re dealing with China and China has a history of not being a reliable trading partner,” said Seeback.  “So it’s always dangerous when you make these kinds of deals with China.”

“I think that this is going to come back to be viewed as an absolutely terrible decision to try and enter into a strategic alliance with China,” Seeback added. “Time will tell, but I think the liberals are going to one day deeply regret that they’ve made this decision.”

With files from The Canadian Press.

3:53
‘I don’t trust what the Chinese put in these cars’: Doug Ford unhappy about Canada-China EV deal

U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the U.S. controlling Greenland, a message that came as a bipartisan Congressional delegation sought to lower tensions in the Danish capital.

Trump for months has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be “unacceptable.”

During an unrelated event at the White House about rural health care, he recounted Friday how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals.

“I may do that for Greenland too,” Trump said. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that,” he said.

He had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue.

Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington this week with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

That encounter didn’t resolve the deep differences but did produce an agreement to set up a working group — on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views.

European leaders have insisted that is only for Denmark and Greenland to decide on matters concerning the territory, and Denmark said this week that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies.

1:05
European troops in Greenland “would not affect” Trump’s views on annexing nation: White House

In Copenhagen, a group of senators and members of the House of Representatives met Friday with Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers, and with leaders including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

Delegation leader Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, thanked the group’s hosts for “225 years of being a good and trusted ally and partner” and said that “we had a strong and robust dialog about how we extend that into the future.”

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Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said after meeting lawmakers that the visit reflected a strong relationship over decades and “it is one that we need to nurture.” She told reporters that “Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think that’s what you’re hearing with this delegation.”

The tone contrasted with that emanating from the White House. Trump has sought to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals. The White House hasn’t ruled out taking the territory by force.

“We have heard so many lies, to be honest and so much exaggeration on the threats towards Greenland,” said Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic politician and member of the Danish parliament who took part in Friday’s meetings. “And mostly, I would say the threats that we’re seeing right now is from the U.S. side.”

Murkowski emphasized the role of Congress in spending and in conveying messages from constituents.

“I think it is important to underscore that when you ask the American people whether or not they think it is a good idea for the United States to acquire Greenland, the vast majority, some 75%, will say, we do not think that that is a good idea,” she said.

Along with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, Murkowski has introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the use of U.S. Defense or State department funds to annex or take control of Greenland or the sovereign territory of any NATO member state without that ally’s consent or authorization from the North Atlantic Council.

4:46
Greenland’s future no clearer after White House meeting

The dispute is looming large in the lives of Greenlanders. Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said on Tuesday that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.””

The chair of the Nuuk, Greenland-based Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents around 180,000 Inuit from Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia’s Chukotka region on international issues, said persistent statements from the White House that the U.S. must own Greenland offer “a clear picture of how the US administration views the people of Greenland, how the U.S. administration views Indigenous peoples, and peoples that are few in numbers.”

Sara Olsvig told The Associated Press in Nuuk that the issue is “how one of the biggest powers in the world views other peoples that are less powerful than them. And that really is concerning.”

Indigenous Inuit in Greenland do not want to be colonized again, she said.

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