{"id":212540,"date":"2019-05-03T02:14:07","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T06:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=212540"},"modified":"2019-05-03T02:14:07","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T06:14:07","slug":"china-suspends-export-permits-from-two-canadian-pork-plants-says-ottawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/03\/china-suspends-export-permits-from-two-canadian-pork-plants-says-ottawa\/","title":{"rendered":"China suspends export permits from two Canadian pork plants, says Ottawa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said administrative issues related to routine customs inspections arise periodically. (File Photo<\/a>: Marie-Claude Bibeau\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TORONTO \u2014 China has suspended the export permits of two Canadian pork exporters, including Quebec-based Olymel LP, apparently over package mislabelling amid growing tensions between the two countries.<\/p>\n

Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said administrative issues related to routine customs inspections arise periodically.<\/p>\n

She said the current suspension is limited to two processing facilities with all other approved Canadian pork processing facilities remaining eligible to export to China.<\/p>\n

\u201cCFIA 1\/8the Canadian Food Inspection Agency 3\/8 is looking into the situation and we are working with the Chinese importers and Chinese authorities to lift the suspension as soon as possible,\u201d she said in an email.<\/p>\n

The department was formally notified Wednesday of the suspension after Customs China posted the information on its website the prior evening.<\/p>\n

The suspensions come amid strained relations between the two countries following last December’s arrest in Vancouver of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. warrant. China has since arrested two Canadians and halted canola imports from two Canadian companies.<\/p>\n

Ottawa has been unable to follow up on the notification because China is in the middle of a holiday this week, said a minister’s spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

Kate Hawkins said administrative issues often surface, sometimes over paperwork that is missing some Chinese characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it’s really just simple and we address it and it can take a few weeks and the problem is resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadian pork producer Olymel said its plant in Red Deer, Alta., is one of two affected by the suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are assessing the situation with the authorities,\u201d said spokesman Richard Vigneault, adding there is no impact on production at the plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cOperations are still going on and there will be no change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadian Pork Council says the suspensions appear to stem from a labelling problem and are not tied to any political moves by China.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our understanding what the plants are looking into, it is an exterior labelling problem that they’re going to be fixing,\u201d said council spokesman Gary Stordy.<\/p>\n

China is Canada’s second-largest export market by volume after the United States.<\/p>\n

Alberta Agriculture Minister Devin Dreeshen said the province is deeply concerned by the export suspension and is working with Ottawa to resolve it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government must find a resolution to these diplomatic disputes and restore access to our agricultural export markets,\u201d he said in a release.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlberta has offered up every technical and scientific capability we have to help work with Canada and the People’s Republic of China in this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberta pork producers raised 2.8 million pigs in 2017, according to an industry website.<\/p>\n

Quebec-based Drummond Export said it was also notified about a suspension.<\/p>\n

Bruno Mussely,\u00a0international\u00a0development director, said the company based in Drummondville doesn’t believe there is a problem with the meat itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not delisted of course, it’s just suspended. It usually means a minor problem,\u201d he said, noting it’s the company’s first suspension from China.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 China has suspended the export permits of two Canadian pork exporters, including Quebec-based Olymel LP, apparently over package …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":212541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-ross-marowits","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212542,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212540\/revisions\/212542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}