Vet certificates attached to Canada pork counterfeit: Chinese embassy

An investigation following the suspension of problematic Canadian pork products to China revealed that the official veterinary health certificates attached to the batch of pork were counterfeit, the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa said Tuesday evening.

The number of those forged certificates was up to 188, and the Canadian side believes that this incident is a criminal offence, a spokesperson of the Chinese embassy told the press.

Recently, the Chinese Customs authorities have inspected ractopamine residues in a batch of pork products exported from Canada to China. Therefore, the Chinese side has immediately suspended the import of pork products from relevant enterprises and required the Canadian side to carry out investigation, the spokesperson said.

The Chinese suspension started Tuesday.

The fact that these forged certificates were sent to the Chinese regulatory authorities through Canadian official certificate notification channel shows the existence of obvious safety loopholes in the Canadian meat export supervision system, the spokesperson said, adding that China has taken urgent preventive measures to protect the safety of Chinese consumers and requested the Canadian government to suspend the issuance of certificates for meat exported to China since Tuesday.

"We hope the Canadian side would attach great importance to this incident, complete the investigation as soon as possible and take effective measures to ensure the safety of food exported to China in a more responsible manner," said the spokesperson.