(Bloomberg) -- Canada is hoping to resume meat exports to China even before finishing an official investigation into forged documents that triggered a ban by the Asian nation.
“I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to reassure our Chinese trading partner with additional safety measures to our export system so they can reopen the market even if the investigation still needs a bit more time,” Marie-Claude Bibeau, minister of agriculture and agri-food, said in a phone interview.
The forgery was discovered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency after the Asian country informed Canada on June 14 that a pork shipment was found to contain ractopamine. Canada told China about the fake document as it was a potential public health issue, Bibeau said. Beijing then decided to temporarily halt meat shipments.
“This means that we had a breach in our export system, but it’s very, very specific to Canadian meat exports to China and so it doesn’t apply to any other agricultural or agri-food products,” Bibeau said.
The situation differs from an ongoing spat over canola, a crop used in cooking and livestock feed, between the two countries.
China has halted imports of canola from some Canadian firms. While the Asian country is citing pest and quarantine concerns, the move is widely seen in Canada as a likely retaliation over the arrest of a senior Huawei Technologies Co. executive, Meng Wanzhou, in Vancouver late last year.
But on meat, “we have daily conversations,” Bibeau said. “We have to admit that there is inauthentic certificate in circulation so we have proof of that.”
The food agency has handed over its information on the forged document to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which is investigating the incident. Chinese authorities are also investigating, she said.