Thank you for the question.
It certainly is a complex area when in addition to managing the technical aspects, issues of consumer perception and public trust are brought into the mix. We know that they are quite divergent views from time to time.
My colleague pointed to biotechnology. This is an example that's often raised of where the scientific review of products demonstrating their safety has been the hallmark of decision-making in Canada, while in the European Union, in addition to the scientific review.... I note that when products are reviewed, our colleagues in the European Food Safety Authority who carry out the risk assessment reach the same conclusions we reach in Canada, but there is an additional step in the European approval process that includes consideration both collectively and on an individual member state basis, and that has resulted in many fewer approvals in Europe.
That has presented for Canadian businesses a tremendous amount of uncertainty. It is an area around which we have continued to work closely with our European counterparts. In particular, when products are approved in one jurisdiction, we work to facilitate continued trade in that particular commodity while respecting the fact that an approval is not yet in place, in order to create a more predictable trade environment as it relates to low-level presence.
These are areas that represent significant challenges for Canadian businesses. We certainly will continue to advance a view that we believe a science-based, risk-based regulatory system to be the most effective in terms of trade facilitation, but we do recognize that these differences exist and will continue to be areas of debate.