China Takes First Step in Anti-Dumping Investigation into Canadian Canola

Sep 10, 2024

China has taken the first step in its planned anti-dumping investigation into canola imports from Canada.

The Canola Council of Canada confirmed in a statement Monday that China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) formally announced its Notice of Initiation of an anti-dumping investigation into imports of Canadian canola seed. This is the first step of the investigation which, the notice indicates, will cover a dumping investigation period from Jan. 1, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2023, and an industry injury investigation period from Jan. 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2023.
MOFCOM has also indicated the investigation is self-initiated by the ministry and is not at the request of domestic industry. Additionally, MOFCOM has identified a number of exporters which are in-scope for the investigation, the statement said.
“We are engaged and in close communication with government officials regarding the implications of the investigation and Canada’s participation and response to it, including the need for a coordinated approach and support for the Canadian canola industry,” said Chris Davison, Canola Council of Canada (CCC) president and CEO.

Davison added that an ongoing assessment will be required to determine the various impacts on Canadian canola.
The anti-dumping probe reportedly has a one-year deadline, expected to wrap up no later than Sep. 9, 2025.

The CCC reiterated its stance that Canada’s canola trade with China is aligned with and supports rules-based trade, fair market access and competitiveness of Canadian canola in the important Chinese market.

China’s anti-dumping probe, which was initially announced early last week, follows on the heels of the Canadian government slapping a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese electric vehicles, as well as tariffs of imported steel and aluminum from China. Retaliation from China was widely expected, and canola has been a target of Beijing before.

In early 2019, China banned canola imports originating from a pair of Canadian grain companies, Richardson and Viterra, alleging that shipments were contaminated. However, it was believed the real reason for the ban was pay back for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the behest of the American government.

The ban on shipments from Richardson and Viterra was eventually lifted in May 2022, and according to a statement from MOFCOM, imports of Canadian canola increased significantly in the first full year afterward, jumping 170% year-on-year in 2023 – sparking the anti-dumping probe.

"Affected by the unfair competition of the Canadian side, China's domestic rapeseed-related industries continued to suffer losses," MOFCOM said in a statement.

Source : Syngenta.ca

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”