When Prime Minister Mark Carney traveled to Beijing in January to revamp economic ties with the world\u2019s second-largest economy, one Canadian Premier went with him: Saskatchewan\u2019s Scott Moe.<\/p>\n
Six weeks later, Mr. Moe caught a plane with Mr. Carney to India. And he was in New Delhi\u2019s palatial Hyderabad House to witness Tim Gitzel, chief executive of Saskatchewan uranium miner Cameco Corp., strike a long-delayed $2.6-billion supply agreement with the Indian government. <\/p>\n
The Premier and his trade team had been involved in the diplomatic and economic resets with both countries \u2013 mining long-standing relationships they\u2019d built with key decision makers over years.<\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n In January, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe was at the table with Prime Minister Mark Carney and other officials during a bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing.Sean Kilpatrick\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n Mr. Moe knew China\u2019s Minister of Commerce personally thanks to a trade mission he led in 2019 when Wang Wentao was the governor of Heilongjiang province. When Canadian trade envoys were struggling to reach Chinese officials last year to discuss canola tariffs, Mr. Moe travelled to Beijing to make connections, helping grease the negotiations that led to agricultural restrictions being lifted in January.<\/p>\n Likewise, when diplomatic relations between Canada and India broke down following the 2023 killing of a Canadian Sikh activist in British Columbia, the government of Saskatchewan convinced the Indian government to reinstate its provincial trade representative in New Delhi \u2013 making him one of the most senior officials left at the Canadian embassy until last summer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve worked hard at building a partnership with the countries that we trade with,\u201d Mr. Moe said in an interview at the embassy in New Delhi during the Canadian visit in March, his fourth trip to India since becoming Premier. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you want products one year, Saskatchewan companies, whether it\u2019s potash, pulses or uranium, they\u2019re happy to sell that. But that\u2019s not what they\u2019re trying to do. They\u2019re trying to be a sustainable, reliable, trustworthy trading partner, year in, year out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Red potash is processed at Nutrien\u2019s Cory Potash mine in Saskatchewan. Potash, one of the province’s key exports, is a high-demand product crucial to sustaining agricultural industries around the world.Matt Smith\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n Saskatchewan is a commodities powerhouse that produces food, fertilizer and energy products in high demand in the world\u2019s fastest growing economies. It exports more than 65 per cent of the stuff it makes. It\u2019s bound to have global ties.<\/p>\n But the province hasn\u2019t taken its trade relationships for granted. For two decades, it has systematically pursued a trade diversification strategy that has given the small landlocked province of just 1.2 million people clout in major overseas markets, particularly in Asia.<\/p>\n Saskatchewan\u2019s exports have grown from $19.8-billion in 2007 to more than $45-billion by 2024. It now exports to 160 countries around the world. Nine of the markets it supplies are worth more than $1-billion a year. Provincial exports per capita are double the national average.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Saskatchewan canola farmers were disproportionately affected by China\u2019s economic retaliation and turbulent government relations during the past decade.David Stobbe\/Reuters<\/p>\n The province hasn\u2019t always succeeded in maintaining its markets, and it\u2019s been caught up in a number of nasty trade and diplomatic disputes in recent years. <\/p>\n When Canada arrested Chinese executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018 and slapped tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in 2024 \u2013 both at the request of Washington \u2013 it was Saskatchewan canola farmers who bore the brunt of Beijing\u2019s economic retaliation. <\/p>\n The poor relationship between the governments of former prime minister Justin Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi resulted in Cameco\u2019s India supply contract not being renewed between 2020 and 2026. And in November, India placed a 50-per-cent levy on yellow pea imports, disproportionately hitting Saskatchewan farmers. <\/p>\n But it\u2019s also in these moments of trade turbulence that the province\u2019s diversification efforts have shined.<\/p>\n Saskatchewan exported $43.5-billion worth of goods in 2025 \u2013 higher than the five-year average \u2013 despite trade disputes with all three of its largest markets: the United States, China and India. Provincial gross domestic product reached an all-time high of $85.4-billion last year.<\/p>\n As Ottawa looks to double non-U.S. exports over the next decade, reduce its reliance on President Donald Trump\u2019s protectionist U.S. and – as Mr. Carney said in a Davos speech in January – \u201cprioritize broad engagement,\u201d there\u2019s a lot Canadian politicians and business leaders can learn from the province locked in the centre of the country.<\/p>\n For four decades, mountains of coral pink potash have boarded rail cars in Saskatchewan, cut through the Canadian prairies and Rocky Mountains, been loaded onto ships at the Port of Vancouver, crossed the Pacific Ocean and arrived at a port in Malaysia, where they travel to a network of oil palm plantations that span almost 40,000 hectares. <\/p>\n This fertilizer is critical to Malaysia\u2019s leading agricultural industry: palm oil. It is important to the production of the fruit. Without potash, 3 per cent of Malaysia\u2019s yearly GDP would be in peril. And for four decades, one of the conglomerates that dominates the national industry has trusted no other supplier but Saskatchewan\u2019s Canpotex Ltd. \u2013 the province\u2019s leading marketer of potash. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Canpotex employees visit a rubber plantation in Malaysia in the early 1980’s. Since its entry into the Asian market, Canpotex has become a trusted potash supplier.Supplied<\/p>\n Exclusivity such as this is rare, said Datuk Edward Lee Ming Foo, group managing director of Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd. There is no loyalty in the world of fertilizer. The industry is transactional. Price and quality decide the sale.<\/p>\n But Canpotex bucked the trend, he said. <\/p>\n The relationship stretches back to the 1980s. An ex-foreign-service officer and trade commissioner named Steven Dechka had just set up shop in Singapore as the head of Southeast Asian and Oceania markets for Canpotex. His mandate was simple: Find new markets overseas.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t going to be easy, said Mr. Dechka. Canadian exporters had a huge, accessible and familiar market south of the border, and importers knew it. The U.S. was \u201cour great saviour and our great problem,\u201d said Mr. Dechka. <\/p>\n The potash supplied by Canpotex is critical to Malaysia\u2019s leading agricultural industry: palm oil. Palm trees require potash throughout the year, and the timing of the fertilizer application is vital to crop health \u2013\u00a0and in turn, to three per cent of Malaysia\u2019s GDP.<\/p>\n IAN TEH\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n New markets across Asia were also confusing for a business trying to diversify away from the U.S.: a vast array of different languages, government structures, business practices and consumer preferences. Mr. Dechka recalls standing in line behind other white men in suits night after night at the International Hotel in Beijing, waiting to place a call home from the only phone in the city that wasn\u2019t tapped. <\/p>\n But by the turn of the century, Canpotex had developed a customer base that was \u201csecond to none in Asia\u201d for a Canadian company, says Mr. Dechka. <\/p>\n In total, Canpotex has delivered over 20 million tonnes of potash to Malaysia, making it the single largest exporter to what has become the world\u2019s fifth-largest market for potash. The company has mirrored this strategy elsewhere. It now exports to around 40 countries, contributing US$5-billion a year to the Canadian economy. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Head of Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd.\u2019s fertiliser division, Mr. Thau Vui Voon, at the Shalimar plantation outside Kuala Lumpur. Hap Seng Consolidated Berhad has been a client of Canpotex since the 1980s. Canpotex remains its single supplier of potash. They use Red Standard Canadian potash for plantation fertiliser applications.IAN TEH\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n Canpotex understands what others do not, said Thau Vui Voon, chief executive for the Malaysian palm tree conglomerate\u2019s trading division. As much as price is important, when it comes to fertilizer, reliability is crucial. Palm trees need potash throughout the year, and timing of fertilizer application is vital. Trust, commitment and constant engagement go a long way. <\/p>\n \u201cWe share a long-term partnership with long-term values,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n And it was this concept \u2013 aptly executed by Canpotex \u2013 that caught the eye of then Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall around 2007, shortly after he took office and embarked on a bold trade diversification strategy. <\/p>\n Mr. Wall was in the back of a car, locked in hectic New Delhi traffic when the premier realized his province would need to \u201cgo it alone\u201d and build its own trade strategy. <\/p>\n Mr. Wall was in New Delhi for a myriad of reasons, including securing agricultural exports and trying to convince the Stephen Harper government to sign a nuclear collaboration agreement so Saskatchewan could ship uranium to India. But Mr. Wall was also keenly aware that negotiations over the province\u2019s major overseas export \u2013 potash \u2013 were not going well. <\/p>\n A deal between Canpotex and India\u2019s buyers was far from being signed, said the letters Mr. Wall was receiving.<\/p>\n Mr. Wall asked Canada\u2019s trade commissioner \u2013 who had picked him up from the airport \u2013 about the status of the deal. <\/p>\n \u201cOh, it\u2019s done. Everything\u2019s done,\u201d Mr. Wall recalls him saying. <\/p>\n The trade commissioner was \u2013 to use the former premier\u2019s terms \u2013 \u201cobjectively wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Mr. Wall was the first Canadian Premier to visit India on a trade mission in 2011. Towards the end of his tenure, Mr. Wall joined then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sign a contract for Saskatchewan-based Cameco to export uranium for India’s growing energy industry.Emma Palm\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n The Canadian embassy was instead focused on a deal involving BlackBerry cellphones, said Mr. Wall. \u201cThis was a disconnect from reality,\u201d he said. Saskatchewan accounted for about 40 per cent of India\u2019s imports from Canada at the time. A huge chunk of that was potash, and when it comes to global fertilizer trade, India is the white whale: The state subsidy for fertilizers is valued in the tens of billions and skews prices worldwide. <\/p>\n \u201cWe decided to go it on our own,\u201d said Mr. Wall. \u201cTo build these relationships under the Saskatchewan flag. Not the Canadian flag.\u201d<\/p>\n And the province had every right to do so, said Mr. Wall. <\/p>\n Saskatchewan did not have what Mr. Wall called \u201chard power\u201d inside Canada. The province holds few seats in Parliament and does not decide elections. But it did have soft power. It had what the world needed. <\/p>\n Saskatchewan is a breadbasket that exports more canola, peas, lentils, durum wheat and oats than anywhere else. Its potash reserves are biggest in the world (the province is responsible for 30 per cent of global trade). And Saskatchewan has a host of critical minerals needed by the energy transition, including the world\u2019s largest deposits of high-grade uranium for nuclear reactors. <\/p>\n Mr. Wall decided his government would base the prosperity and growth of his province on selling these critical products to as many countries as possible.<\/p>\n Alanna Koch is one of the key advisers who has formulated Saskatchewan\u2019s trade diversification strategy. <\/p>\n Ms. Koch was the province\u2019s deputy agriculture minister starting in 2007, and she became then premier Wall\u2019s deputy minister in 2016. She went on all but one of his trade missions. Her background as a farmer was seen as a major asset, and she understood why as she walked through a food market in India. <\/p>\n She\u2019d stopped at a stall to examine some lentils, displayed in a small dish on the side of the stand. The vendor asked if she was interested.<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I\u2019m from Saskatchewan. I grow lentils. I\u2019m a farmer.\u201d<\/p>\n He gestured to his entire stall and told her everything he sold was from Saskatchewan. The province fed his business and his family.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just went on and on, as if he was from Saskatchewan, telling me my story. And it was such an eye opener. Like an awakening. They know more about us than we know about ourselves… and we really do make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Broadening Saskatchewan\u2019s trade ties starts with a Premier-led mission. This told a trading nation that they mattered, said Ms. Koch. <\/p>\n Since becoming Premier in 2018, Mr. Moe has traveled to Beijing, New Delhi, London, Mexico City, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates. A number of these places he has traveled to more than once. <\/p>\n (For comparison, Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario \u2013 the province with Canada\u2019s largest GDP and a population more than 13 times larger than Saskatchewan \u2013 has been on zero trade missions to a country other than the U.S. since he took office in 2018, according to published expense reports on out of province travel.<\/a>)<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n With Mr. Carney and Mr.Modi looking on, Cameco President Tim Gitzel, Saskatchewan Premier Mr. Moe, and High Commissioner of India to Canada Shri Patnaik present a signed an agreement which will see Cameco supply the Indian government with 22 million pounds of uranium for the country’s energy sector between 2027 and 2035.Adrian Wyld\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n Saskatchewan\u2019s deputy ministers follow up with their own trade missions. They take industry and a province-backed non-profit called the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership. The province invests $3.2-million in STEP annually. <\/p>\n The government provides credibility, and industry attends to explain products, learn about consumer demands and \u2013 hopefully \u2013 sign deals, said Ms. Koch. <\/p>\n The next step is establishing a permanent presence, said Ms. Koch. The first trade office Saskatchewan set up was in Shanghai. The province now has offices in Mexico, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, India, Germany, Britain and the UAE. <\/p>\n They are staffed by one managing director (employees of the provincial government) and two locally engaged staff. These offices help open doors and develop business relationships, and they are points of contact should trade issues surface, said Ms. Koch. Total exports to countries with these offices have increased from $6.3-billion in 2019 to $7.6-billion in 2025, a 21-per-cent increase. <\/p>\n The Saskatchewan trade strategy wasn\u2019t magic, said Ms. Koch. It was methodical. And it is the best example in Canada of how to diversify trade, said Eric Miller, a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, a former federal trade representative and founder of a trade consultancy where he has advised more than 40 governments on trade across Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. <\/p>\n Mr. Miller recalls taking an Asian mining delegation to Ottawa, Toronto and Saskatoon. Ontario welcomed the delegation, but it did not offer much help with the itinerary. <\/p>\n Saskatchewan was a different story. The province\u2019s trade staff arranged a series of visits to mining sites, and they introduced the visitors to university professors and people who work with Indigenous communities. They had a \u201cfull concierge service,\u201d he said, and no detail was overlooked. <\/p>\n After a mine visit, guests were delivered a halal lunch (most of the delegation was Muslim). They \u201csell from the moment you land to the moment you leave,\u201d Mr. Miller said, remembering how the drivers \u2013 arranged by the province \u2013 would point to Saskatchewan-made farm machinery in the fields that lined the highway on the way to the mine site. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are very few countries in the world that really are based on transactional relationships,\u201d said Warren Kaeding, Saskatchewan Minister of Trade and Export Development. \u201cReally, what it takes is seeing the whites of your eyes to know that they can trust you.\u201d<\/p>\n This kind of investment in trade comes with a cost, and the return is not immediate or guaranteed. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Saskatchewan\u2019s network of trade offices around the globe costs $11-million annually. Between October, 2024, and March 31, 2025, Saskatchewan\u2019s Premier, minister of agriculture, and minister of trade and export development racked up $141,556 in publicly listed travel expenses<\/a> for trade missions to non-U.S. markets. Controversial travel expenses include a 2023 $765,000 spend on a pavilion space at the COP28 conference in Dubai. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, in February, Saskatchewan was ranked as the most difficult province for accessing a family doctor, the province is contending with a shortage of substitute teachers and – according to media reports from March – it is short 200 paramedics. <\/p>\n As the past 12 months have also demonstrated, these efforts haven\u2019t saved Saskatchewan from facing Chinese and Indian tariffs and non-tariff barriers on its key exports. <\/p>\n This is a reality of doing business with China and India, said Mr. Miller. The two countries are prone to raise tariffs and non-tariff trade barriers. And it is a reality that Pacific nations selling to the huge population centers in India and China \u2013 such as Japan, Korea and Australia \u2013 contend with constantly. <\/p>\n While the government does its part to help diversify trade, the province\u2019s success is ultimately built on a \u201cmutual effort\u201d between the public sector and private sector, Mr. Moe told The Globe and Mail in New Delhi. <\/p>\n \u201cWhether it\u2019s the mining industry or the ag industry \u2013 the pulse growers, for example \u2013 they very much understand the importance of that international engagement, international markets, and trying to do what they can to provide that market security,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Red potash is stored in a warehouse at Nutrien\u2019s Cory Potash mine near Saskatoon. Nutrien is a client of Saskatoon-based Axiom Exploration Group, which connects miners to technology and services. Saskatchewan’s renown in the mineral space and efforts from the provincial government have boosted Axiom’s reputation on the world stage.Matt Smith\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n Doug Engdahl, CEO of Saskatoon mining technology company Axiom Exploration Group, chalked a large part of his company\u2019s success in international markets up to this partnership.<\/p>\n Mr. Engdahl was recently sitting in a meeting with an executive of India\u2019s US$31-billion Tata Group, listening to him talk about Mr. Wall and how he paved the road for the business that the company and the province do today, one decade later.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really ride that reputation, and make sure we don\u2019t tarnish it,\u201d said Mr. Engdahl. \u201cYour reputation is one of the greatest commodities.\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Prime Minister Carney meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in January. During the visit Canada and China established a new strategic partnership, including deals to reduce tariffs on key Canadian agricultural products like canola.Sean Kilpatrick\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n As Canada rethinks its place in the global trading system, Saskatchewan and its companies will need to lean on this reputation worldwide. They\u2019ll need to make a case for themselves within this country as well. <\/p>\n The Trump administration has made it clear that it wants Canada and Mexico to limit commercial ties with China as a condition for maintaining preferential access to the U.S. <\/p>\n That could put the canola tariff deal Ottawa struck with Beijing in January at risk. In effect, Mr. Carney may be forced to choose between Ontario auto workers and Saskatchewan farmers as it looks to renew the continental trade agreement with the U.S. and Mexico. <\/p>\n But with more trade turbulence ahead, Saskatchewan has a history, and a playbook, to draw on. <\/p>\n The Decibel: Saskatchewan\u2019s new massive \u2018pink gold\u2019 mine<\/p>\n Australian mining company BHP has made the largest investment in the company\u2019s history<\/a> in Saskatchewan, opening the province\u2019s biggest potash mine. The Globe\u2019s agricultural and food policy reporter, Kate Helmore<\/a>, got to see the mining project firsthand. She joins the show to talk about the development, whether it could serve as a blueprint for other major projects and what it could mean for Canada\u2019s economic sovereignty.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Prime Minister Mark Carney traveled to Beijing in January to revamp economic ties with the world\u2019s second-largest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1397,45,49,48,46,6347,5756],"class_list":["post-735899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-appwebview","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-ne-i","tag-yesapplenews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}