When we talk about globalization of trade, we hear a lot of words. We talk about the organization of the global market in particular. There is no global market organization, but rather a global market disorganization. Explain to me how you take chicken from the United States, sell it in Africa for less than the cost to African producers to produce it, destroy their production and throw those people on the mercy of the international market?
As I told you earlier, 10% of products in the global market are exported. We're setting a rule of 90% local consumption around the world. If there was really a world trade organization, we would ask Burkina Faso whether it is capable of producing chicken; we'd let it engage in its production, and if it was short 10%, we would bring in countries capable of producing it. We would let it produce what it is capable of producing at home.
We support the concept of food sovereignty. We don't have any intention of destroying local agriculture elsewhere around the world, that of our colleagues who work as hard as we do and who deserve to earn their living as much as we do. Market globalization has never produced profits for the producers of the world. It has largely benefited major businesses that engage in international trade. They're the ones who benefit from it. If that's what we want, let's let the natural laws of the market, or the law of the jungle operate: the big eat the small.
If we want a Canadian and global society that is based on the protection of resources, and if the people in the communities are involved in the development of their economic and social environment, we will set our own rules for organizing trade, based first on food sovereignty. We will never change positions on that. That's the choice of a society, not only Quebec's, or even Canada's, but global. If we want the population of the world to be able to live in dignity from agriculture, we will indeed have to use the term “organization of trade” particularly with regard to agriculture.
I don't have any intention of competing with the people of other countries, if they are capable of producing their own food. I'm a maple syrup producer, and it's a pleasure for me to ship maple syrup to Japan to give those people the pleasure of consuming a product that's really from my home. However, it troubles me when I have to force down the prices of someone who is having trouble getting by in his country, to enable someone else to make money to the detriment of both of us. We want food sovereignty for that reason. Pardon me, but that came from the heart.