The federal government is pressing China to explain why it has quarantined seemingly healthy Canadians and banned the import of pork products from Alberta.
“China is operating outside of sound science,” federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz told the House of Commons yesterday. “We are looking for clarification as to why it has gone as far as it has.”
Canada would not hesitate to go to the World Trade Organization and challenge the ban if China does not back down, Ritz added.
Other countries banning Alberta pork are El Salvador, Honduras, the Philippines and Ukraine. Russia has banned pork from Nova Scotia, Ontario and British Columbia, but not Alberta.
A group of Montreal students was also making the best of a difficult situation, stuck in a guest house in northern China. Officials ordered the apparently healthy group into a week-long quarantine.
