China refuses to provide evidence of pests in canola, Canada says in WTO complaint

China has repeatedly declined to provide Canada with adequate scientific evidence to justify shutting the door to imports of Canadian canola seed, Ottawa says in a new complaint to the World Trade Organization that referees global commerce.

Canada this week laid the groundwork for a challenge at the WTO of China’s de facto ban on Canadian canola seed that began in March, a measure that targeted the former No. 1 export from Canada to China.

China has effectively stopped buying canola seed from Canada since March in what trade experts say is economic retribution for the arrest of Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou at Vancouver International Airport last December. Canada was fulfilling a U.S. extradition request under the terms of a treaty with the United States. The Americans allege Ms. Meng, chief financial officer at Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., helped the company violate U.S. economic sanctions against Iran...

This was excerpted from 12 September 2019 edition of The Globe and Mail.