China suspends import of all Canadian meat effective immediately

After what it says was a recent investigation into a batch of pork products exported from Canada to China, the Chinese government announced it has suspended the import of all Canadian meat products, effective immediately.

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“Recently, the Chinese Customs authorities have inspected ractopamine residues in a batch of pork products exported from Canada to China,” said Chinese Embassy spokesperson Lu Shaye, in a statement.

As a result, “China suspended the import of pork products from the relevant enterprises and required the Canadian side to carry out investigation.”

The subsequent investigation, he said, “revealed that the official veterinary health certificates attached to the batch of pork exported to China were counterfeit and the number of those forgery certificates was up to 188.”

These forged certificates were “sent to the Chinese regulatory authorities through Canadian official certificate notification channel, which reflects that the Canadian meat export supervision system exists obvious safety loopholes,” he continued.

Now, in what he calls a “move to protect the safety of Chinese consumers,” Shaye said “China has taken urgent preventive measures and requested the Canadian government to suspend the issuance of certificates for meat exported to China since June 25.”

He added that “the Canadian side believes that this incident is criminal offence.”

Shaye concluded by saying he hopes that the Canadian side “would attach great importance to this incident, complete the investigation as soon as possible, and take effective measures to ensure the safety of food exported to China in a more responsible manner.”