OTTAWA — Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau says she used a G20 ministers' meeting in Japan to press her Chinese counterpart for the evidence behind Beijing's bans on Canadian canola.
Last week, Canada used a major World Trade Organization gathering to demand China deliver evidence that Canadian canola is contaminated.
China has stonewalled requests for Canadian experts to travel to the People's Republic to examine Chinese evidence that two canola shipments had pests.
China's rejection of Canadian food products is part of the escalating tension following the RCMP's December arrest in Vancouver of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou.
Nine days later, China imprisoned two Canadians — ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor — and accused them of violating China's national security.
Bibeau says the broader meeting in Japan was all about upholding the "rules-based" international trading order and she's confident her message will be taken back to Beijing.