Evidence of meeting #23 for International Trade in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was negotiations.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson
Thank you, Monsieur Laforest.
Very quickly to wrap it up, Mr. Keddy.
4:55 p.m.
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'd just like to go back to the question that I was trying to articulate as I ran out of time, and that is specifically on our inspections of our fish plants, our abattoirs, our meat-packing facilities, our slaughter facilities, and how they'll dovetail or merge with the existing practices in the EU, because the EU does not have a totally different standard, but they have many different standards. Some of them are very similar; some of them are totally different.
Specifically with fish, for the dried fish market, to be able to air dry... There's not much air drying going on anymore, but they use wooden racks; they don't use steel racks. A lot of that is because it affects the quality of the fish. Those are practices that we will want to be able to continue in Canada, and those are some of the practices that we seemed to be getting mixed messages about from CFIA, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
5 p.m.
Chief Trade Negotiator, Canada-European Union, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
I'm looking to whether Gilles is going to start that--or would you like me to go first?
5 p.m.
Conservative
5 p.m.
Director General and Chief Agriculture Negotiator, Negotiations and Multilateral Trade Policy Directorate, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
I can briefly mention the slaughterhouse issue. Yes, this is an issue where in fact there has been quite a lot of work done, because we currently have a veterinary agreement with the European Union, where veterinarians on both sides meet on a regular basis and look at the inspection system and try to have a common understanding of the processes.
This is an issue that we have identified as potentially an area where we should perhaps go further and see how we can improve on the recognition of our respective systems and how we can try to ensure that we are not caught by surprise by new requirements introduced by either side. So this is an area that obviously requires a lot of technical expertise and a regular dialogue between Canada and Europe. That has started, and I think you said the Canada-EU agreement provides an opportunity to even beef that up further.
5 p.m.
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
Perhaps I could just expand quickly on that, on where I'm coming from. For instance, there are a number of by-products from fish, where the skins, the skeletons, are used to make high-quality gelatin products. Those products are used in pharmaceuticals, they're used in food additives--they're used everywhere in the world. That process is totally contained. It's usually inside stainless steel vats, and it gets CFIA inspectors who are concerned about whether there is a crack in the floor or not. There's never anything that touches the floor except the wheels of the forklift. We need to somehow or other make sure that we're expecting the same standards from our plants as the Europeans are expecting from theirs, and we have to differentiate between lines and products that actually touch food and assembly lines that don't touch food.
5 p.m.
Chief Trade Negotiator, Canada-European Union, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
If I can respond to that, that's exactly the kind of approach we're trying to take. We need to find practical ways of achieving common approaches that are going to be able to allow the trade to move back and forth freely. The EU has experienced this very much in the same way within the 27 member states. They don't all follow these practices exactly the same way. That's why we're looking into this much more deeply. If you have different practices but they achieve the same end in terms of quality or safety of the product, then why should we be too concerned about it? That's the kind of discussion we've been having with the EU and that's where we want to end up. Let's not invent artificial barriers. Let's make sure we're achieving what the regulations are intended to achieve.
5 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Keddy, and again to our witnesses. I appreciate we've gone over the time we told you we might have to be here today.
Mr. Verheul, continued success with your negotiations out there and throughout. Thank you for appearing here today.
To our witnesses, thank you for being with us. I'm sure we'll see you again. I appreciate the advice you provide to us outside the meetings as well. It's very helpful.
With that, gentlemen, we're going to adjourn. We'll be back on the same topic on Thursday with some lobbyists from both sides.
Thank you.