Evidence of meeting #10 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was europe.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
There's virtually no impact there at all.
I want to move to Mr. Thurlow for a minute. During your presentation and a number of times since then, you've referred to this GMO issue and the legislative policy-making issues in Europe. I'd like you to expand a bit more on that and maybe break it down a little more for me so I can understand it better. Then along with that, both of you could respond to the question of the non-tariff barriers. We've already significantly addressed the GMO issue. Are there other non-tariff barriers that could create issues for either of your industries?
First on the GMO and the legislative issue, Mr. Thurlow and then—
President, Canadian Renewable Fuels Association
To me, the GMO issue is really simple. We need GMOs to allow for the very high crop yields that we have. Our crop yields in Canada have gone straight up like an arrow into the air for the last 10 to 15 years, and we're now producing a very high percentage of corn compared to what we used to create. If there is any type of a barrier to that product getting into Europe, whether it's canola or soy or corn, that's a serious problem for us, because the entire North American industry has been improved and built on because of these efficiencies that were created.
Another non-tariff barrier, I think, is the indirect land use change issue that I raised in my testimony—
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Can you expand on that? That's the part I'm having difficulty with.
President, Canadian Renewable Fuels Association
They are proposing, under the auspices of a “food versus fuel” argument, that biofuels change the way farmers use their land to create biofuels. It is absolute hubris. There is no evidence that it has ever happened. As I said in my presentation, we use less land now to make more food and fuel. The only land use change that's actually happening is that we're shrinking land. It is a very popular issue with NGOs in Europe, and there is no evidence of that change happening here in North America.
Conservative
President, Canadian Renewable Fuels Association
No, they're still debating it. My colleague in Europe spends a lot of time lobbying on this, let me tell you.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Do you have a forecast as to when it possibly could...is it imminent or is it something way out?
President, Canadian Renewable Fuels Association
It's scheduled to be voted on by the end of the next European Parliament cycle. It's contentious.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Are there other non-tariff barriers that the sugar industry is facing?
President, Canadian Sugar Institute
We don't expect to see any.
The big issue for us will be managing the sharing of the exports from Canada, because, in terms of the sugar-containing products, it's a relatively small volume in relation to the U.S. sugar market, which is 26 million tonnes. It just has to be managed from an export control point of view here in Canada. That's what we're used to with respect to the U.S. quota. It's really an administrative management issue not a European import restriction.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
Thank you very much, Mr. Albrecht.
I want to thank the witnesses for taking an hour. They were great presentations and good questions.
Mr. Thurlow, Ms. Marsden, and Mr. Walton, thank you for being a part of the CETA talks and the preparation for our report.
The intent is that we will wrap up next week with our witnesses, and then over the break we will get a report that will come back in January. Thank you again very much for being a part of today.
We will resume proceedings in camera in couple of minutes.
[Proceedings continue in camera]