China: Stephen Harper

West Coast Dept: And because of an agreement Harper signed while in China - though negotiated over the past several years - West Coast can expect to export a lot more of one of its main products to that country by the end of the year, according to Vancouver Sun. Before 2003, China had been Canada's largest export market for tallow, Glotman said. But when some Canadian cows were hit with bovine spongiform encephalopathy BSE that year, China stopped buying Canadian tallow. At the time, West Coast was selling about 80,000 tonnes of tallow a year to China, which today would be worth about $80 million, Glotman said and west Coast Reduction president and CEO Barry Glotman says he's not political at all. Yet he was part of Stephen Harper's four-day China mission last week and came away impressed. While overseas he met with many Chinese businessmen, some of whom he hopes will become customers. West Coast is in the business of buying the non-edible parts of animals from farmers and turning them into a variety of products, such as protein meals used in animal feed, animal fats and tallow - a product used, among other things, in the production of soaps and cosmetics. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.