Trump Tariffed Canada. He Forgot "Canola" Was Short for "Canada Oil."

 

#CanolaOil #Canada #CookingOil

 

Somewhere in an American kitchen right now, someone is frying an egg or dressing a salad with a bottle labeled "canola oil" — the second most popular cooking oil in the country. Almost nobody knows what the word means. Canola isn't a plant that grows wild. It was invented on purpose, in Manitoba, in the 1970s: Canada + "ola" (oil) = Canola. 

 

Bred by Canadian public researchers to strip the toxic compounds out of rapeseed, it became the world's #3 edible oil — and Canada still dominates it completely. ~20 million tonnes grown a year, ~90% exported, 15 crushing/refining plants, more processing experience than anywhere on Earth. 

 

The US buys the overwhelming majority of it: $23 billion of Canada's $28.5B in canola oil exports (2020–2024) went to America — over 80%. The US is the single largest canola oil buyer on the planet, and Canada supplies ~35% of ALL America's cooking oil imports — more than any other country. 

 

When Trump's 2025 tariff threats hit, canola was in the blast radius — until his April 2, 2025 executive order explicitly exempted CUSMA-compliant Canadian canola by name. It's held through every tariff wave since. Why? Because taxing it would raise costs in a huge share of American restaurant fryers and grocery shelves overnight, with no fast substitute. 

 

The fresh twist: in Jan 2025, the US banned used cooking oil from biodiesel eligibility — and canola oil became a top replacement feedstock, pushing US imports to a record ~8.5 billion pounds this year, over half now going straight into diesel, not food. One federal policy taxed the supply; another manufactured more demand for it, in the same year. 

 

The honest other side: this cuts both ways. The US is the customer Canada's entire canola industry is built around — when China hit Canadian canola with retaliatory tariffs in 2025 (over an unrelated EV dispute), Canadian farmers felt it immediately. American canola acreage and crush capacity are also growing, and soybean oil is a real, if imperfect, backup. This isn't potash — the alternatives aren't hostile nations, just smaller and slower to scale. 

 

Sources: Canola Council of Canada, USDA Economic Research Service, USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, CBC News, Manitoba Agriculture, and the Globe and Mail. 

 

🤖 TRANSPARENCY: This video was created with AI assistance — AI-generated voice, AI-assisted research and writing. Real sources, real analysis. 

 

 #CanolaOil #Canada #CookingOil #Trump #Tariffs #CanadaUSTradeWar #Carney #JamesWren #TheDecisionRoom #CUSMA

 

 

Source:    The Decision Room