Chinese ambassador hopes canola dispute won’t be big issue during Trudeau visit
OTTAWA — China’s ambassador to Canada says he hopes a simmering trade dispute over Canadian canola exports won’t become an even bigger problem with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau set to visit Beijing next week.
Canada has been inflexible and “unfair” in its approach to talks that began seven years ago over Chinese concerns about rules for the make-up of canola shipments, Luo Zhaohui told The Canadian Press in an interview Thursday.
At issue is the amount of so-called “dockage” — foreign material such as other plants and weed seeds — found in Canadian canola exports to China.
The Chinese government, which has concerns about the spread of a disease associated with canola, has given Canada until Sept. 1 to cut the level of dockage in its deliveries of the crop down to one per cent from 2.5 per cent.