Beijing had blocked deliveries of Canadian meat in June over a batch of pork containing ractopamine, a feed additive banned in China, which was accompanied by fraudulent pork export certificates. Canada’s International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr has disputed that the pork was Canadian. In a tweet, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau credited Dominic Barton, Canada’s ambassador to China, with a role in ending the ban. (The Logic, Global News)

Talking point: China is Canada’s third-largest pork market by value, and its largest by volume. Its move to ban meat shipments from Canada came against the background of deepening diplomatic tensions between the two countries, sparked by Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in 2018. China also cut off shipments of Canadian canola earlier in 2019, citing contamination—a move Canada is currently challenging at the World Trade Organization. Despite the ongoing political tensions, there may have been one particular factor in Beijing’s reversal of the pork ban: China’s ongoing swine fever crisis is strangling its local supply.