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Richardson has been selling to the Chinese since 1910, shipping wheat to the communist government in the hungry 1940s and 1950s. “It doesn’t count for diddly-squat,” said Vossen.

On March 1, the week Meng’s extradition hearings began, Richardson was advised by the Canadian government its export registration on canola had been revoked by the Chinese because there were unacceptable levels of pests in its canola.

Vossen refutes the suggestion, pointing to re-inspections of the grain shipment in question by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Canadian Grain Commission. “There was nothing beyond the normal standards,” he said. The authorities in Beijing said that Canadian standards are inadequate and that unless those inspection standards are improved, there will be no more Canadian canola exports.

“Our advice to the Canadian government has been to seek to engage on the issue of quality. Failing any willingness by the counter-party to engage in that, then you have to presume it isn’t quality. It’s worthwhile making the effort to ensure what it isn’t and what it isn’t is quality. We’re convinced of it,” said Vossen.

As the Richardson boss pointed out, “this isn’t a small thing”. Canada is the number one exporter of canola in the world; it contributes more than $26 billion to the economy, according to Statistics Canada.

“This is damaging to the Canadian economy, it’s damaging to the farm economy and the western Canadian economy – it’s a big producer of revenue and foreign exchange,” Vossen said.

Farmers will adapt by reducing the amount of canola being grown. But the canola dispute has been a textbook lesson in Chinese pressure politics — the strategic use of a supposed health concern to seek concessions on something completely unrelated.

The feeling among many business leaders is that the Canadian government has to very quietly play the same game.

jivison@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/IvisonJ