Thank you for your testimony.
Mr. Busby, I could spend the remainder of the meeting arguing and contradicting you. I completely disagree with your vision of supply management. I would image that this comes as no surprise to you.
I will instead turn to Mr. Clark, someone with whom we have an excellent exchange of information. I really appreciate your informing us about your work and thoughts on international trade and many other topics. I'm pleased that you're here to discuss these issues with us. I know that you have a particular interest in international trade. Earlier, you spoke about what is currently going on in Europe, etc., and you said that this could have an impact on the future free trade agreement that Canada has begun with the European Union, obviously.
Have you read the Joint Report on the EU-Canada Scoping Exercise? Usually, when Canada proceeds with free trade agreements, it conducts a broad consultation on the free trade opportunities with such a country. However, in the case of the European Union, the government set out, on paper, before conducting these consultations—at least I never heard of any taking place—the subjects that it wanted to explore. To my great surprise, this report states the following "no tariff line should be excluded a priori." The way I read this—and this is how Mr. Richard Doyle, from the Dairy Producers of Canada reads it—supply management is open for discussion during the course of these negotiations. We are trying to find out what is occurring, because this has raised a great deal of concern amongst our producers.
First of all, are you aware of this report? Have you read it? What do you think about it? Is my interpretation and that of the Dairy Producers of Canada correct in that supply management will be negotiable during the course of these discussions?