The CBC has obtained a three-page letter that warned Canadian politicians that the new trade deal among Canada, the United States and Mexico would sideswipe its $322-million investment in an infant formula milk processing plant.
Zhiwen Yang, the general manager of Canada Royal Milk — the Canadian subsidiary of China Feihe Limited — wrote to then-Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay and the Liberal MP for Kingston and the Islands, Mark Gerretsen, describing how Canada's concessions in the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) put his business plans in jeopardy by limiting how much cow's milk formula it can export and dismantling the dairy ingredient pricing system.
Yang asked the federal government to "mitigate the risks to the project." His three-page letters, dated Oct. 16, 2018, were released to CBC News under the Access to Information Act.
A few days later, Feihe International Inc. "respectfully" asked the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and another senior government official to meet for 90 minutes on Oct. 29 with Yang and his boss, Feihe International chair Youbin Leng, who was travelling to Canada with his directors of research and regulatory affairs.
"The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the regulatory framework in China and explore how we can work together. The expectation is not for a decision to be made, but to begin a conversation," said the email from Carey Bidtnes, Canada Royal Milk's human resources manager, who was part of the team that worked on bringing this investment to Canada during her previous employment with the Kingston Economic Development Corporation.
Bidtnes said that Canada Royal Milk was working with Health Canada and the CFIA to "resolve a challenge" with exporting its formula.
