Evidence of meeting #22 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was market.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
You said something to the effect that maybe having a brand was bad. Did you mean having “a” brand, or having a Canadian brand?
Associate Professor, Department of Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, University of Manitoba
In some markets, putting “made in Canada” on it actually can hurt your returns rather than have a positive effect.
Associate Professor, Department of Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, University of Manitoba
It's because they want to buy U.S. If you're in a U.S. market, sometimes the preference is for their local market.
You're just so confident in the Canadian market you don't—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Okay. I'm told differently down there, but anyway....
Mr. Hoback, you have five minutes.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Welcome, witnesses. It's great to see you here this afternoon.
I'm going to go around the map, because there are probably about 10 topics I'd like to dive into. I don't have enough time to dive into every one of them, so there are a few I'm just going to skim across the top of.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
The chair will give you more time, Mr. Hoback.
Conservative
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
He treats us fairly.
Dr. Rude, I'm going to ask you about the trade policy side.
You've looked at the global market; if you were advising our trade people, which markets would you go after most aggressively at this point in time?
Professor, Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta
The obvious answer is still the Asian markets.
I'm not sure what's going to come out of the India negotiations. I think there are probably going to be too many exemptions at the end of the day. However, some of the members of the trans-Pacific partnership—Malaysia, for instance—could potentially be very expanding markets.
We also probably don't pay enough attention to our own hemisphere. I think things could be done within NAFTA; you could clean up rules of origin so that instead of getting the zero tariff of NAFTA, firms would end up paying the MFN tariff so they don't have to establish the origin of the product. There are things you can clean up on the edges.
I also think we can try to re-establish links in both Central America and South America, in Brazil in particular.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
You talked about the Asian markets. I'll just go back to that, then. You've done price analysis, and that is part of your expertise. Do you figure those markets would have the biggest bang for bringing dollars back to the farmer?
Professor, Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta
It would probably be more of an income effect: as income grows, demand is heightened.
Professor, Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta
The demand goes up more; it's more responsive to very rapid.... You tend to think of less developed markets as having more responsive demand with respect to income. You see very rapid growth in those markets.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Would be fair to say, then, that if Canada is not at TPP or actively pursuing those markets, we'd be on the outside looking in, and that would be detrimental?
Professor, Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta
Very much so.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Okay.
Mr. Raizada, you talked about fertilizers and stuff like that. I find that really interesting, because I used to work for a company called Flexi-Coil, which was bought out by Case New Holland. I used to spend a lot of time in eastern and western Europe. No tillage was how we grew our company from a $50 million company to a company of about $350 million.
One of the frustrations I had when I was taking product into eastern and western Europe was the regulation side of things. It was amazing. With the stuff that was built in Canada, homologation would come into play, and the shields and the guards and everything had to be perfectly right, yet if we had built the same product in the U.K., all of a sudden they didn't really care. I think it really comes down to what you said, Mr. Brewin, about standardizing regulations; then you could just build something in Canada and ship it over there as is.
I'm curious about your fertilizers. There is stuff like Agrotain. Lots of work is being done at the University of Saskatchewan on that aspect. When that research is completed, do you see hurdles in getting it exported to markets outside Canada?
Associate Professor, International Relations Officer, Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph
In terms of hurdles, if I didn't state this, my suggestion is that there are more opportunities for export to developing nations than to developed nations. Europe, Australia, etc., will put up barriers, but there are huge opportunities in parts of Asia and Africa. The rest of the world ignores Africa; Africa has a billion people. My prediction is that in 50 years we will be talking about Africa. I think we should get in at the base here.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
That reiterates the point with regard to the tariffs and the barriers. That's why you need trade agreements--so that you can actually work through issues one by one when they come up. You have a process in place to deal with them. Would you agree?
Associate Professor, International Relations Officer, Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph
This is starting to go beyond my area of expertise, so perhaps I'll address the others--
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
If you have the process in place, you bring stability into the marketplace. An angel investor could look at it and say that they see the long-term benefits coming to Canada, because they know they're going to have reasonable access to x market or y market. Are we not seeing that at this point in time, or are we still a little bit away from that?
Associate Professor, International Relations Officer, Department of Plant Agriculture, University of Guelph
I think I will refer to one of my colleagues here.
Conservative
Associate Professor, Department of Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, University of Manitoba
Can you ask it again?