Mission Accomplished for Ship That Was Stuck in East China Sea

(Bloomberg) --

A ship that had been loitering in Chinese waters for weeks, unable to unload its cargo of Canadian canola, looks to have fulfilled its mission just as the U.S. and Chinese presidents agreed to a trade war truce.

The Amazon left China's Xiamen port on June 29 after traveling back and forth in the East China Sea for four weeks, according to shipping data compiled by Bloomberg. A change in the ship's draft indicates it discharged its cargo, and the vessel is now heading to Australia, the data show.

The Chinese authorities had been repeatedly carrying out quality inspections on the cargo, a person familiar with the situation said last week. Canada became entangled in the U.S.-China trade spat after arresting Huawei Technologies Co. Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou at the request of the U.S. last year.

Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to a truce and more talks during a weekend meeting at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan. While the meeting spurred some optimism over the resumption of negotiations, many remain skeptical that an end to the trade war is close.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he believes canola is being used as a pawn in the trade war after China revoked the import licenses of two canola exporters, detained two Canadians, and held soybean shipments at ports for inspections. An email sent to Chinese customs about the canola shipment went unanswered.

China's imports of Canadian canola, used to make cooking oil for popular spicy Sichuan food, slumped almost 70% in May from a year earlier as companies cut purchases from the country's largest supplier.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Niu Shuping in Beijing at nshuping@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anna Kitanaka at akitanaka@bloomberg.net, James Poole

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With assistance from Bloomberg