Agriculture committee  Just to clarify, the EU does in fact approve GMO traits, biotech traits. There are a number of concerns that Canada and other countries have with respect to trying to export to the EU. One has to do with their approval process. On paper they do approve or welcome biotech traits,

Agriculture committee  Absolutely, and it can shut markets down, as you know.

Agriculture committee  I'll go through again where we think the gains are going to be, and maybe put it in context for you compared to some of our other export markets. The way we derived the number was that each of the major sectors that CAFTA represents took a look at what was in the deal for them. T

Agriculture committee  I think that's the nature of trade. The European economy is clearly much larger than the Canadian economy. If you look at the benefits on a GDP basis, the studies have shown that Canada is actually going to fare better than Europe will in terms of reciprocal trade. Ultimately, f

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, and good afternoon. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today about the impact of the Canada-EU free trade agreement on Canada's agri-food sector. CAFTA, as many of you know, is a coalition of national and regional producer groups and industry ass

International Trade committee  From CAFTA's standpoint and what we've done, essentially whenever we take a look at an FTA with another country we do a review with our members of the issues they face in that market and what they think the potential could be. From our members, their estimate was about $350 milli

International Trade committee  CAFTA doesn't take a position on the rail service review, partly because it's a domestic issue and also because not all of my members' products would be transported by rail primarily. Certainly, as you know, a lot of our members, particularly on the grain side, would have signifi

International Trade committee  It doesn't really. There are some additional export opportunities within the family of current TPP countries, albeit they're probably not hugely significant. Vietnam might be a good opportunity for some growth, but a lot of the TPP countries compete with us as it is. From an ag

International Trade committee  Japan does seem to have a protectionist approach to its agriculture sectors. I think the fact that the Japanese government indicated that they need to focus on trade markets, and that they'll have to take a look at some domestic reforms in order to do that, is an incredibly posit

International Trade committee  The meetings we're having are primarily with our buyers, and they're quite enthusiastic about the possibility of a trade deal. The relationship between Canada and Japan, when it comes to agriculture and food exports, has been around for a long time. It's quite a stable relationsh

International Trade committee  You know, I am, and I think you raise an important point. From an agriculture perspective, we are quite thrilled with the trade agenda right now. If you take a look at a few of the TPP countries, Canada is negotiating or trying to negotiate with 80% of the markets that we export

International Trade committee  Yes. I think we have benefits pretty much across the board, but certainly for beef and pork we see a lot of opportunity, and also in the canola sector. I mean, right now, just because of the tariff structure, we can get canola seed into Japan with no tariffs, but our oils have

International Trade committee  I don't think I go anywhere without being asked about supply management. CAFTA doesn't take a position on supply management. Our view in agriculture is live and let live. Now, at some point the interests do collide, if you will, because we're looking for trade opportunities. I t

International Trade committee  I know it's an issue that's come up quite significantly in the context of Canada-EU. It's not really an issue that affects us in agriculture. Certainly in the context of Canada-EU, I'm really pleased to see at this point in the negotiations that about 96% or 97% of agriculture ta

International Trade committee  Good afternoon, and thank you for having CAFTA back to the committee. I'm Kathleen Sullivan and I run CAFTA, which is an organization made up of Canadian farmer or producers groups, processors, and exporters. Our mandate is to pursue high-quality trade agreements on behalf of C