West Nova Conservative MP Chris d'Entremont addresses the House of Commons on Tuesday, May 26, 2020. Image from https://www.ourcommons.ca/.
There have been a lot of questions about the liability declarations the Chinese government has demanded Canadian seafood shippers to sign.
Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont, who represents West Nova, says it doesn’t look like the Canadian government or the Canadian Food Inspection Agency had any prior warning about it.
“My challenge is…I mean, what’s the liability mean? Is it a liability of the product, of the shipping, or is it a small COVID-19 outbreak in a Chinese city? That’s the unknown part.”
The MP questions the timing of the demand, with everything going on between the two countries at this time and says they’ve been worrying for months about the ongoing relationship with China.
“We have to be careful in our way that …you know, a third of seafood products, probably end up in China one way or another and we just can’t lose that market. But at the same time, we have two people detained there, with some tremendous challenges going on, so, the China issue is one that will impact all of us.”
Many Canadians believe the demand for the liability declarations has a lot to do with ongoing diplomatic spats.
d’Entremont says it’s hard to see if anyone can win this situation but every department involved needs to work on behalf of the fishery.
“The challenges that we’ve been having over the last number of years, in dealing with China, have continued to augment…but, at this point, this particular issues is challenging and we need to understand, so Global Affairs, DFO, and CFIA have to be there on behalf of the fishery to understand what the long term implication will be.”
With many people and organizations not wanting to say anything that might be taken the wrong way, much of the information on the subject has been second hand.
