REGINA - In the recent uproar over President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, market access for one Saskatchewan product has gained considerable attention.
That is potash, which Premier Scott Moe pointed out in a post on the X platform this week. In that post Moe pointed out the importance of potash to a popular American product: the McDonald’s Big Mac.
“From growing wheat for the bun to corn for the cattle– it turns out that the secret ingredient to the Big Mac is potash. A tariff on Canadian potash is a tax on Americans’ food. Let's keep tariffs off Big Macs. And everything else.”
The post was accompanied by a screenshot of a story published in The Logic under the title “A trade war would destroy the Big Mac.”
The reason why potash has gotten more attention as of late is because of concerns being expressed by politicians in the American farm belt about the impact tariffs on potash would have on their bottom line.
One of those states is Iowa. Earlier this month, their longtime Republican Senator Charles Grassley had called for President Trump to exempt potash from any tariffs he was placing on Canada.
“Biden inflation increase the input cost to farming by 20% incl particularly high prices on fertilizer. So I plead w President Trump to exempt potash from the tariff because family farmers get most of our potash from Canada,” Grassley posted.
In the end the broad-based 25 per cent tariffs were paused for 30 days as Canada agreed to stepped-up efforts to fight fentanyl crossing the border. But Canada did get hit with steel and aluminum tariffs a week later.
Tariffs on potash haven’t come to fruition — for now. But Saskatchewan politicians have taken note of the concerns coming from the US about what the threat of tariffs on potash could mean to their states.
In speaking to reporters in Regina prior to his trip with other Premiers to Washington D.C., Moe pointed to the concerns raised by Grassley.
“I've met with him a number of times and, you know, again, tariffs are a tax, a tax in this case on potash that would increase the price of food, not only on the potash, but a tax on the air drill that is going to go down in the U.S. is also going to increase the price of food,” said Moe.
“The tax on the potash, and other products that are going down, is going to increase the price of food. And so, you know, herein lies the challenge and the ineffectiveness of potential tariffs or counter tariffs for that matter. That's why we have very much been an advocate, and our effort in Washington, D.C. and every day is for us to operate across North America — and around the world for that matter — but across North America in a non-tariff environment. It's the most efficient way for us to build and strengthen that North American economy and provide the opportunity for all the folks that we represent.”
Last week at the winter pulse growers meeting in Regina, Opposition Leader Carla Beck also had comments to reporters about the importance of potash.
“Well, despite what you know you sometimes hear, the world does need what we produce here in Saskatchewan, what we produce in Canada,” said Beck, referring to President Trump’s recent comments that the US doesn't need any products from Canada.
“Certainly those farmers, those producers down in the U.S. understand that they need our potash to be able to grow what they need to grow in the U.S. It's why consistently we have not only talked about what the impact of these tariffs, potential tariffs, would be to Canadians and jobs and livelihoods here at home, but the devastating impact this is going to have for producers, for consumers, for industry in the U.S. We've heard that message again today.”
Beck made it known she wanted to see ramped up efforts to take the message to Americans that tariffs would be damaging on both sides of the border.
“You know, this is, we've got a bit of a pause here. We're under 30 days. It is more important than ever that we don't take our foot off the gas. We continue to take those messages directly to Americans. We've heard also for example from the American home builders who understand that if these tariffs were to come in, it would only increase costs for building homes in the U.S. at a time, like Canada, where we need more homes built. I don't think that there are very many people on either side of the border who are looking for higher costs when it comes to putting gas in their vehicle or putting food on their table.”
