Evidence of meeting #46 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 ceta.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
He just put it forward to me today, so we'll deal with it at the end of the meeting.
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
Okay.
To the clerk, how many more meetings do we have?
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
Actually, we can have this discussion now, I guess, if that's what you want to do.
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
No, it's just a priority, because I have other questions. It's just a quick question to the clerk.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
There will be today and Thursday, and then...deal with the report.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Mr. Chair, can I just raise a point of order?
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
NDP
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
No, no; it's a point of order, though.
We normally discuss committee business when we don't have witnesses here. I would suggest that if we have committee business issues—i.e., about budgets, the number of meetings, and all those types of questions—we do that at the end, Chair, as we normally do, as part of committee business.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
Okay.
I would sincerely like to thank the witnesses for being here today and for their testimony. I hope that we will be able to amend this nice report. We worked on it last year in November and December.
I have a question for Mr. Laws.
You made some recommendations. In our supplementary report on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, we made this recommendation:
Canadian manufacturers of prepared meats are concerned with the concessions on geographical indications given to the EU and they’re concerned that there may have been no reciprocity....These meat companies may lose their trademarks for products estimated to have an annual retail sales value of over $25 million.
Mr. Laws, would you like to add any other recommendations to this report?
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Meat Council
No, I think that was the only recommendation.
We were happy to see that the final text included some exceptions, for instance with regard to translation, to people who had used a certain product for at least five years and for 10 years in the case of another one. It was not as bad as what we had expected, particularly regarding German ham.
The three companies that held the trademark, the monopoly, and who were protected in Canada during all those years, will now be obliged to share the monopoly. Nobody can really know how this will affect those companies in particular, but whatever the case will be, they were not entitled to compensation.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
When you last appeared before the committee, you said this:
Finally, only establishments listed by the EU may export edible meat and meat products to the European Union. The product must be kept at all times in an EU approved establishment in order to maintain its eligibility to be exported to the European Union.
This matter had to do with wood pallets.
You also gave some examples to do with pork. Can you tell us about this issue—which does not exist in Canada—about the problems and considerable costs related to this matter?
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Meat Council
We are hoping that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will appoint someone responsible for advising businesses on how to ensure that their establishments are approved by the European Union. This would help them a lot; it would be a great idea.
In the ongoing discussions with the Europeans, we hope that they will respect the process normally used in Canada. It would make it easier for many Canadian companies to become eligible to export their products to Europe.
We also made a recommendation to the Standing Committee on Finance.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
11:55 a.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Meat Council
We recommended that the government implement a program to make sure that every company has an advantage under any free trade agreement we've signed with another country. We now have several free trade agreements.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
In fact, we have to help these companies transition so that they can truly access those markets. We have to make changes here, in Canada, so they can get into those markets.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
That's really important.
I think you asked for $10 million.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
We are out of time. Thank you, Madame Brosseau.
And thank you to our witnesses for coming in.
We'll break for a few minutes while the next group comes in.
Thank you very much.
Noon
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
Thank you very much.
With us in the second hour, we have, from the Agri-Food Export Group Quebec-Canada, André Coutu, chief executive officer; and Raymond Dupuis, economist, strategic advisor.
Then we have, with the Canadian Pork Council, Ian Thomson.
Welcome to you.
And then, on video conference in London, with the Pork Council, we have first vice-chair, William Wymenga.
Then we have, from the Canadian Sugar Institute, Sandra Marsden, who is president.
With that, we're going to start off with the Agri-Food Export Group Quebec-Canada.
Mr. Coutu, please. You have ten minutes.
December 2nd, 2014 / 12:05 p.m.
André Coutu Chief Executive Officer, Agri-Food Export Group Quebec-Canada
Good morning, I would like to begin by thanking you for having invited us today. It's a pleasure to see you again.
We were here before, in 2012, on the agri-marketing program.
Just to place things, Groupe Export is the largest food exporter, food processor, in Quebec, with over 400 companies that are members of our organization. We've been in business for almost 25 years. We are also the owner and shareholder of the SIAL Canada, the largest trade show in Montreal and Toronto every year. The next one is going to be in Toronto by the end of April.
We do something like 25 to 30 international representations, in different food shows around the world. We're here today, of course, to outline the importance of the CETA.
For Quebec, the future of the food and beverage industry depends to a great extent on international markets. In Quebec, the domestic market represents $21 billion. Fifty-three per cent of that market share is held by Quebec companies, that is, for an amount of about $11.3 billion. What we are particularly interested in under the free trade agreement is the opportunity to close the trade gap with Europe. We'll come back to that later.
As for external markets, exports outside Quebec total $12.7 billion per year.
In the rest of Canada, there's $6.7 billion. Half of our exports from Quebec are to the rest of Canada, and the rest of the world represents $6 billion.
Since 1990 in Quebec, export growth has been exponential. Today, it has reached 499%. So you can actually say it is 500%. It is clear that exports are extremely important and crucial to us. In Quebec, exports are worth $6.1 billion, and 62% of these exports go to the U.S. market. Between 90% and 95% of our members do business with the United States first, and then with other countries throughout the world.
As I mentioned earlier, Quebec exports to Europe are worth $511 million per year whereas European exports to Canada are worth $1.6 billion annually. So we're talking about a trade deficit of approximately $1 billion per year with Europe. It is very important for Quebec that specific measures be taken with regard to the European market so we can close this huge trade deficit.