VICTORIA — Forest industry leaders from British Columbia are continuing a trade mission to China without provincial government officials, who are cutting short the trip to Asia as a court case involving a senior executive of Huawei Technologies unfolds in Vancouver.
According to a report by CTV News, Susan Yurkovich, president of the Council of Forest Industries, said long-standing business relations with China are separate from legal issues involving Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecom company, who was arrested in Vancouver and has applied for bail.
Yerkovich made the comments in a telephone conference call from Tokyo as she was preparing to leave for China.
“We are looking forward to moving forward to China,” she said after the B.C. delegation’s stops in South Korea and Japan. “A large business delegation is heading over there to continue on with the meetings we have set up. As you probably know, China is our second largest market after the United States.”
Almost 3% of B.C.’s wood exports are sent to China, said Yurkovich.
She said the business leaders view the court case as “separate from business.”
See full report here.