TORONTO (AP) -- Canada's federal government will announce whether it will block BHP Billiton's foreign takeover bid for Potash Corp. after markets close.
Erik Waddell, a spokesman for Industry Minister Tony Clement, confirmed the Wednesday timing.
Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, is attempting a hostile $38.6 billion takeover of Potash Corp.
The government faces a dilemma. On the one hand, it firmly believes in the free market. On the other, it will be risky for a federal prime minister to overrule a provincial premier, and Saskatchewan's premier is dead set against the takeover.
Saskatchewan-based Potash Corp. controls more than 25 percent of the world's supply of potash, a fertilizer ingredient critical to the global food supply.
