Premier John Horgan says the government is monitoring China’s recent ban on meat exports from Canada, and the topic will more than likely be discussed at the Western Premier’s meeting in Edmonton today and tomorrow.

China claims the ban was put in place after officials found fraudulent veterinary health certificates on pork products, and Horgan says the ban on beef is of particular importance to British Columbians.

“We’ll be taking stock with our other colleagues and working with the Federal Government to see what our response will be,” Horgan said. “We are obviously very concerned when a large trading partner – whether it’s the US, China or the EU, has a view that is not complementary, so we are going to work hard to make sure that these alleged fraudulent certificates are exposed, if they exist, and we’ll go from there.”

Horgan adds he is convinced that the ban is related to Canada’s arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou last December.

“Alberta is a large exporter of beef to China. That will have a profound impact on their economy,” Horgan added. “Manitoba I believe is among the largest pork exporters to China from Canada.”

“Having an opportunity to sit down with Premier Jason Kenney and Premier Brian Pallister, we’ll have a better sense of what the impact is there.”

Horgan says he was briefed on the issues yesterday by the Federal Finance Minister who spoke with the Premier and Finance Minister Carole James.