“It’s just a few that did and you know, all those other countries opened up fairly quickly. So yeah, really the outlier here is China.”
“We’re pretty confident all of the technical requirements and information that was needed has been provided, to allow the decision to reopen,” he said. Tensions between Canada and China have recently ratcheted up again, with the Canadian government on Monday expelling Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei, alleging he was involved in a plot to intimidate Conservative MP Michael Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong.Article content
“Some people are jumping to the wrong conclusions and because of this latest exchange, the question of the diplomatic expulsions, they assume that it’s going to immediately lead to a whole series of further restrictions,” Houlden said.Houlden said it’s not abnormal for China to move slowly on the regulatory front, due to a combination of “bureaucracy and lethargy.
Laycraft said during the year-and-a-half that the Chinese market has been closed, the Canadian beef industry has seen increasing sales into Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and other Asian countries. He said this has been due in large part to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement forTrans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement between Canada and 10 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.