We're at a really opportune time in that it's a win for every stakeholder group to increasingly see joint registrations, Canada and the U.S. Farmers started it, and farmers were clearly, in the early days of NAFTA, saying this is where they wanted to go.
The regulators now really see the benefits and the farmers see the benefits of having the regulators on both sides of the border having the same decisions. Because the new pesticides are, generally speaking, better for human health and better for the environment, you actually have the health stakeholders and the environmental stakeholders also supportive of increased harmonization and increased access.
There is no doubt that some of the older pesticides were really problematic for either human health or the environment, and for the most part we've moved beyond the real problem ones, but there are still concerns about a lot of the older ones.
So you have stakeholders north and south of the border all saying it's better to move, regulators north and south of the border saying move, and user groups saying move. I've had experience in other regulatory areas, and this is absolutely the furthest advance, without comparison, in terms of international cooperation Canada-U.S.
You can see how quickly things start to change. Craig's been involved for a long time, and what was once positioned as an ideal joint review is now a routine way of work for many companies.
Having a NAFTA label--I've only been involved for a couple of years now--seemed to be something that nobody thought was attainable. Once we put the right people to work, it's been less than a year from when the group started working to having this as a reality and having other companies say “we want it”. And then to right away have a submission for a joint review, with a NAFTA label included as an outcome, is just really amazing.
So I think you can see a real increased momentum for Canadian-U.S. harmonization.