Fisheries committee  Some European countries may establish requirements for how you handle them in their country. That's their prerogative. We would argue that given the fact a lobster has a pretty rudimentary neural system, they would not be aware of what's going on, but we also don't think we're going to be mistreating products that are still alive on their way to market, because quality counts—

Fisheries committee  —and quality would not be sustained if you're not taking care of the animals you're exporting.

Fisheries committee  CETA didn't take into consideration the freshwater, so there's no exemption under CETA, on the one hand. On the other hand, there's not a lot of interest either, I would say. John, do you want to elaborate on that?

Fisheries committee  Again, I don't know the answer to that. We were not aware of it until the announcement took place. We haven't been involved in any of the lead-up to it. We are not really in a position to tell you if it's a compensation, a preparation, or what the nature of the use of the fund would be.

Fisheries committee  They would have responded, I presume, to a position put on the table by the province.

Fisheries committee  It's a fish-processing industry. That's a provincial jurisdiction. We aren't involved in the management of the processing. We work in partnership with provinces, because it's obviously a continuum of the fishing industry, but no, we weren't engaged in this. It was part of a negotiation internal to Canada, to pave the way to get the deal, but we weren't a part of that process.

Fisheries committee  Production costs probably vary quite considerably across the EU. The expertise would also vary in terms of what they're good at processing. Shrimp is processed farther north, where production costs can't be any less expensive than those in Newfoundland and Labrador. There also is the issue of transportation and product form, etc.

Fisheries committee  I think the decision has been made to appeal it.

Fisheries committee  The problem with the decision, from our perspective, is that it says there is obvious discrimination, it's not fair, but they justified that infringement based on the fact there was a moral issue. That's very vague indeed, and how would that apply on all sorts of other products?

Fisheries committee  The Atlantic has products with some of the highest levels of tariffs, so that's why they're going to benefit. When you look at shrimp and other products like processed lobsters, there is a very high tariff applied to them. In B.C., the benefits will be a little bit less because the level of tariffs applied to their products is somewhat lower than the highest.

Fisheries committee  On the latter, I don't. DFO is not involved in the administration of that fund and it hasn't been involved in the discussions leading up to the announcement. It's really outside of our—

Fisheries committee  The Department of Fisheries has not been involved in the—

Fisheries committee  Foreign Affairs and Trade, ACOA, and obviously the province. The province must have had some kind of calculation that the fund was necessary, if it went to the federal government to negotiate it. Unfortunately, I don't have any of that information, nor do I think anyone here does because DFO has not been directly engaged in the discussions leading up to the creation or the administration of the fund.

Fisheries committee  —fisheries that are subject now to Marine Stewardship Council certification. We'll probably see that kind of thing happening, so there will be a lot more demand for sustainability as EU customers demand that kind of assurance from their vendors. That's probably the most significant one.

Fisheries committee  If people want to change carapace sizes, for example, or if they want to change how they're prosecuting the fishery to capitalize on an economic opportunity presented by the CETA process with the European Union, we'll certainly be there to respond to that. Generally, I think most of what's envisaged is that we will just have better access to the market that exists in the European Union.