Ryan Kiedrowski
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The World-Spectator
Another week, and the goalposts change again. U.S. President Donald Trump announced last Thursday that tariffs on some products—not all—from Canada and Mexico will be temporarily waived. Official word of the partial reprieve came only two days after a 25 per cent tariffs on goods came into affect on March 4. The period for the exempted items will last until April 2, which is also the date that the second round of retaliatory tariffs from Canada will be set for.
“We’ve been up and down, it’s like a roller coaster—up and down with one minute it’s on, then it’s delayed for a month, and it’s off and delayed for a little bit longer,” said Souris-Moose Mountain MP Robert Kitchen at an event in Kipling last week. He says a return to Parliament is desperately needed.
“I think what needs to happen and what’s not happening is on both sides of the border, neither governance body has actually looked at the impact it will have on the individual,” Kitchen said. “That’s the thing that’s being missed in this whole thing is how it’s going to impact the individual. The person that lives on Second Street in Kipling, Saskatchewan, how it’s going to impact them on what their food costs are going to be, what their heating costs are going to be, what their energy costs are going to be, business costs, are they going to still have a job in the business that they do, those are huge impacts that everybody worries about but not having an answer for is so fearful of.”
Since tariffs were first announced, issues such as booing national anthems at hockey games, eschewing all products made in the U.S. and general disrespect have been rampant.
“It’s a respect that we need to have for any country, no matter what it is. It’s their national anthem, and for someone to turn around and boo, that to me, is extremely disrespectful,” Kitchen said. “We’ve been such good friends for so long, and we work so well together. Yes, there are differences; yes, there are things that could be changed and that needs to happen, but that happens over time.”
Canada has not backed down with the first round of retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion worth of American goods.
Provincial response
While the federal government is imposing counter tariffs on American goods, Saskatchewan’s reaction has been trying to impress upon the U.S. how harmful tariffs are for everyone and fostering stronger trade relationships with other countries. During Agribition Week in Regina in November, both Premier Scott Moe and Agriculture Minister Daryl Harrison spoke on the importance of talking and listening instead of shouting and ignoring.
Recently, Harrison attended the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture 2025 Winter Policy Conference, speaking on trade between Canada and the U.S. on Feb. 25 in Washington, D.C.
“There’s 27 states in the U.S. that are significant trading partners with the province, and we want to make sure those relationships are continued,” he told the World-Spectator, adding that the provincial government is asking for the support of those partners to avoid the tariffs. “As you know today, it didn’t happen quite that way, but we’re still optimistic that the tariffs are short term, and they have certainly more influence with their U.S. president than we do from north of the 49th.”
The NASDA conference was themed ‘United We Thrive,’ with Harrison finding the Americans very much on the same page as Saskatchewan with their views on tariffs and the ability to work together.
“Overall, they liked what we had,” Harrison said. “Of course, they’re also wanting to increase their trade anywhere they can find a landing spot, but we are very interdependent.”
Above all, Harrison feels it’s important to retain the dialogue with those like-minded groups, who can in turn influence their own leaders.
“It’s important to keep the conversation going,” he said. “If you can equate it to a yelling match, when you start to ‘one up,’ nothing gets accomplished there. We were taking the diplomatic route, the Premier meeting with U.S. government officials, and I was meeting with the state ag leaders, trying to get our message out there. They do understand the relationship, and they prefer a tariff-free environment, but the president is an independent office.”
That office is not immune to bowing from pressure, though. Last week, Trump announced an exemption for the auto sector until the new April 2 date, at the request of General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis.
Potash
One of the amendments from the White House on March 6 was excluding duties on potash, causing both Nutrien’s and Mosaic’s stock prices to rise in response on the day (2.5 and 3.3 per cent respectively). Prior to the March 4 tariff deadline, Mosaic released their fourth quarter earnings with company president and CEO Bruce Bodine touching on the tariff issue in response to a conference call question.
“At the end of the day, if tariffs are imposed, or when, we see that it’s going to be borne by downstream customers of Mosaic,” he said. “So, you know, that’s unfortunate, but it is the reality of that situation. With 85 per cent of the potash demand in the U.S. coming from Canada, it’s just hard to replace that.”
Bodine noted that even with a 25 per cent tariff imposed on potash, affordability is “not that significant of an issue.”
“The other advantage is that spring tonnes,” Bodine said. “Spring season demand is pretty much already baked and in place in the U.S., so we don’t see any immediate impacts for spring on the downstream side.”
