OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian government does not know whether shipments of meat that sparked a temporary Chinese import ban actually come from Canada, Trade Minister Jim Carr said on Wednesday.
"We don't know where the product originated," he told reporters in Toronto. China said on Tuesday it wanted Ottawa to stop allowing meat shipments after bogus export certificates were discovered.
An investigation into the matter is ongoing. "Someone is going to have to come up with some proof that there is something wrong with the product," Carr said.
Relations between China and Canada nosedived in December after Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co, was detained in Vancouver on a U.S. arrest warrant. She denies any wrongdoing and Beijing is demanding her return.
(Reporting by Kelsey Johnson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Phil Berlowitz)
