Agriculture committee  There's no time left, Mr. Atamanenko. As a matter of fact, we only have five minutes left and that will not be enough for a full round. However, if my colleagues have very short questions, I might accept a few. Mr. Gourde, do you have a question?

Agriculture committee  Mr. Atamanenko, you have seven minutes.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. I would like to bring this down to the level of the individual farmer, to see specifically how this affects a person. You mentioned initially, Mr. Hepworth, the data package, data requirements specific.... I'm wondering what you are saying here with respect to Mr.

Agriculture committee  Obviously there's been an improvement—that's the impression I'm getting—over the last ten years or so. By having better access to these new products, how much in savings could a farmer...? Maybe, Mr. Bartley, you can give me an idea. In your operation, you're spending so much on chemicals: how much of a savings could you expect if we really made the system work well?

Agriculture committee  Also, I think you mentioned the maximum residue levels, for example, and this is the same example I used when I was talking about the fruit growers earlier. There are products grown in the United States on which they can use certain pesticides, yet we're competing with these people and can't use the same pesticides here.

Agriculture committee  I have a few more seconds, so I'll ask a general question. How do we strive for this harmonization without giving up our sovereignty? I know it's a philosophical question. Obviously, you're working on that. Could you comment on that, please?

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Atamanenko. Just on a point of clarification, Ms. Dodds, you're talking about the new regulatory regime that was passed in 2002, which is still not in play. Now, as I understand it, it has to be gazetted, and it takes roughly four years plus to run through that process.

Agriculture committee  The process itself is not longer; it's the fact--

Agriculture committee  The fear of harmonization was mentioned to me. How do we get past this fear? Can we get more harmonization to have more products registered simultaneously? You've touched on this, but that's a question.

Agriculture committee  Apparently, products approved in the U.S. are automatically approved in Chile. Is that the case? And if it is, should we be striving for this, and if so, would that lower our standards?

Agriculture committee  It's not an automatic approval, then, which is obviously in our best interest, I would imagine.

Agriculture committee  This question has been asked of me before. Certain products in the U.S. are grown—apples, for example—with specific chemicals not approved in Canada. We import these products, yet our people can't use the same pesticides or chemicals. Can you comment on this? Is this not a danger to our health, then?

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Mr. Atamanenko, seven minutes, please.

Agriculture committee  Apparently, some new products are flowing, and we talked about that, but it still takes much longer in Canada than in the U.S. Can you comment on that?

Agriculture committee  In preparation for this, I talked with the president of the B.C. Fruit Growers' Association. You may have answered some of these questions, but I'll just run down.... For the first one, he talked about measuring the performance of how changes are impacting the new registration in Canada.