Thank you, Minister.
I would like to discuss another topic, that of free trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement or Canada-European trade agreement.
The Canadian meat industry, particularly beef and pork, is very favourable to those agreements. It is very happy that our government managed to conclude agreements last year. However, there is a cloud on the horizon. The matter concerns the consistency of regulations governing slaughterhouses. It seems that certain European countries, or other countries, could use the regulations governing abattoirs to see to it that our meats do not get exported to other countries.
Could those regulations possibly be harmonized with those of other countries? Otherwise, our exports may be blocked. A country could say that it agrees to import 60 million tonnes of beef, but it could also refuse our exports by claiming that the rules and standards governing Canadian abattoirs are different from the ones in Europe.
Could this jeopardize the ratification of the agreement?