Agriculture committee  Everybody understands the difference between China, India, and Brazil. They're the three biggest agricultural sectors, but China and India are all small farms. North American agricultural manufacturers can't compete with Chinese and Indian small manufacturers working one- and two-acre plots.

Agriculture committee  There are all kinds of attitudes. Your container will get held up. You just can't. No one even tries anymore. You cannot get into the country without.... Basically it's about a $10-million price tag to get into the country. You have to set up a partnership with a local manufacturer.

Agriculture committee  There are differences of opinion, I guess.

Agriculture committee  It depends on whether you see it as a market you can compete in. I look at any market and ask if it is a market that a company can compete in. Europe is quite a bit different from Canada. Canada has a lot of bigger farms, so a lot of the equipment is bigger. You get smaller farms in Ontario and Quebec, so manufacturers that focus on those regions can compete more in Europe.

Agriculture committee  There are bigger markets to me than Europe.

Agriculture committee  The biggest ag market right now is protected, and it's Brazil. Everybody wants to get into Brazil, but that is protected so thoroughly.

Agriculture committee  The main issue is western Europe. That's the biggest trouble, so we don't even touch western Europe. It's too difficult for us. We don't attend trade shows in western Europe because they've kind of locked themselves out. They have very strict standards that don't match those of the rest of the world.

Agriculture committee  Probably the biggest barrier is cost, because you have to register in every country, so as a general rule, our company focuses on the United States and Canada. The United States probably accounts for 60% of our sales. A standard patent for us costs $25,000. That's what it costs in legal and consulting...to get it through.

Agriculture committee  The requirements in Canada and the U.S. are actually not well enforced at all. It's mostly a general rule of thumb. We don't have much criteria to meet. It's not very well regulated in Canada or the U.S., actually. Europe is where it's tightly regulated, so meeting the requirements there is where it becomes more difficult.