Thanks a lot.
That's an important question. I sure don't have all the answers for you, but when we were looking at this rule, we asked, what's the advantage to us? In this case we ended up with none on the OTM.
One thing that will happen when we're complete and the $31.70 is awarded is at least your producers will have a place to have them processed, and they will be able to get U.S.-equivalent dollars. Right now, we're into a cow run. You have the Americans buying out dairy herds this winter. All you hear is, “This is number four here, it doesn't look like this one's going to be too big”, but it definitely distorts their need to come up and buy livestock out of Canada. They're filling their kills. They don't need to, and again we're into the fall.
It's hard to pick it, but without it you put the OTM plants at risk. That's what we do. As an employee of the meat industry--I've been a meathead a long time--as I said to you, I've supported this rule. I think it was the right thing for our country to do. I believe some parts of our industry have benefited by it. But again, it's UTM, not OTM.
Keep in mind, with UTM, with this current rule, market access, yes, it's important, but when we show up, our first competitor is the United States. It's not Australia and New Zealand. Yes, they're there, but they're two back from us. Our current competitor is the United States. For OTM--we're talking OTM product here today--that's our number one competitor. The minute you show up, you're disadvantaged.
That's the slippery slope we're on.