In terms of how easy this may or may not be, I have to say that in the vegetable industry, there are also certain complexities, because some vegetables are whole, but mixed vegetables are also sold and may contain ingredients from outside Canada. If the vegetable mixture is made up of peas, beans and corn from Asia, as well as some small Thai corn that only represents 1 per cent of the final product, that isn't a problem. We can still sell Canadian peas, beans and corn, and that is acceptable. We also have a dynamic in the vegetable industry that needs to be looked at, but I think we have tools to do it.
In terms of the Canada—U.S. relationship, Ms. Cloutier knows more about this than I do, but when Aliments du Québec looked at what is being done in the United States, we discovered that 30 States or so, and possibly more, had local promotion campaigns.
Buy in New York, buy this and buy that--I don't think that's the way to go.
I don't think we're out in left field on this. The Canadian agricultural industry is under threat at the present time. That is what people need to realize. We are seeing this in our area. We're telling you this, because this is what we are experiencing. Three plants have closed in the last two years. And, if we look at what is happening in Ontario, there have been quite a few there, as well, in recent years.
So, what do we see on store shelves? We see products from other countries. We do not want negative measures. What we want are positive measures. We will never oppose trade. We will never support regulations that constitute a non-tariff barrier, as some countries may. What we want here in Canada is to ensure that our Canadian products are correctly identified so that consumers can make a choice. If consumers decide that the products being offered for sale by Canadian producers and processors are too expensive, and they prefer to buy different products, well, that's fine. We will get the message. At the present time, we know full well that consumers do not differentiate these products and may not be able to make an enlightened choice. What we want is to support consumers in their choices, as opposed to creating tariff barriers; we want to be proactive, rather than be on the defensive.