Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you as well to our officials for appearing here today.
I am not a regular member of this committee, but as a member from Saskatchewan who is representing a fairly large and diverse rural riding, I am very pleased to be here, and I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about what our government is doing in the area of agriculture.
Over the past two years, I have taken many opportunities to meet with cattle and pork producers from my riding and from across Canada, and in fact, with many provincial and national organizations. I've been told that COOL continues to harm cattle and pork producers throughout Canada. I want to make it clear--our government has made it clear--that Canada will fight to the bitter end to make sure that the United States removes unfair COOL restrictions.
In a recent edition of the Canadian Cattlemen's Action News, on September 27, 2010, the CCA outlined the steps from their perspective on the WTO trade panel and the progress our government is making. They said, “The U.S. made little attempt to refute the Canadian economic analysis”.
It seems that we are indeed on the right side of this issue. I'm wondering if you can give us an update on the status of Canada's WTO challenge to COOL.