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Regardless of the “freezing point” Lu described last week, some sectors of the Canadian economy continue to rely on China for export growth, and Nova Scotia in particular has had reason to celebrate. Exports from the province to China reached $794 million last year from $420 million in 2015. Most of those gains came from the export of seafood. According to a March press release from the provincial government, Nova Scotia shipped $524 million of seafood to China in 2018, an increase of 36 per cent over the previous year.

Meanwhile, the feds are “seized” with calling for the release of Kovrig and Spavor, Austen said, what has become “a top priority for the whole government.” International allies including Australia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, the EU, the G7 and NATO have publicly supported Canada on the consular cases.

Freeland’s parliamentary secretary Rob Oliphant was in China last week with a delegation and raised the cases directly with the Chinese officials he met. And Freeland said during a House of Commons committee hearing on Tuesday that Canadian diplomats in China have made the best of their limited consular access to Kovrig and Spavor. “I hear after every visit that it makes a real difference to them to know that we are fighting for them and standing up for them, and to know what we are doing,” she said.

But for months the Canadian government has been unable to secure high-level meetings, or even phone calls.Although Freeland said she has spoken “on a few occasions” with Lu, Freeland confirmed during a parliamentary committee hearing on Tuesday that she has not spoken with the Chinese foreign minister since before Meng’s arrest. She extended another invitation via her committee testimony, saying, “we are prepared for that conversation at any time.”

— with files from The Canadian Press.

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