Tariff Storm Cloud

March 27, 2025

key points from this story:

• Tariffs impede supply and demand.
• Tariffs are political tools.
• Canada faces U.S. tariff threats.
• China imposes high tariffs on canola.
• Tariffs affect consumer prices.
• Tariffs impact Canadian sovereignty.

Tariffs are easily the biggest issue – perhaps storm cloud is a better word – hanging over agriculture in Canada today. It’s rather easy to understand the impact of tariffs – they impede the natural supply and demand flow of products crossing borders. The reason for tariffs are simply political tools imposed on trade for a variety of reasons – protecting domestic producers and making international political statements a couple of typical reasons to imposing tariffs.

Right now Canadian agriculture finds itself taking tariff war hits from two sources in particular, the United States and China. The U.S. issue is less about the nation imposing tariffs and more about President Donald Trump being – well Donald Trump. Ultimately, Trump appears to be a strange amalgam of a man intent on protectionism at home, while covering to be expansionist on the international side of things. His rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state seems far less amusing today than it did the first time he suggested the nonsensical notion. He – more than the US in general – is a threat to Canadian sovereignty – and his gaze extends farther too Greenland coming immediately to mind.