Last spring China banned the import of pork from H1N1 affected countries including Canadian provinces where the infection had been identified in swine herds however over the last few months all of Canada had been affected.

Last week agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced an agreement that will allow the immediate resumption of Canadian pork exports to China.

Canada Pork International executive director Jacques Pomerleau says the agreement was the product of extensive negotiation.

Jacques Pomerleau-Canada Pork International

The process involved a lot of discussions between the two governments, primarily the Canadian Food inspection Agency and the Import Veterinary Services of China also known as AQSIQ.

The Chinese authorities were looking for an assurance that there would be no link between the meat and the disease although the international institutions like WHO, WTO, OIE always made it very clear that the disease could not be transmitted through meat.

Still the Chinese authorities asked for that kind of assurance.

What's in the new certification?

The certificate basically outlines the fact that there were no clinical signs of H1N1 in the animals that were slaughtered for meat to be sold to China and also that the meat is handled in such a way that it's not conducive to transmit that disease in particular.

Mr Pomerleau notes China is one of our top markets accounting for over 45 million dollars worth of Canadian pork purchases in 2008 and there is significant additional potential.

He says animals processed last week were already meeting the new specifications and meat from those animals will begin arriving by ship into China in the next three to four weeks.

Further Reading

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