Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, everyone, for coming back to this committee.
I want to address some questions particularly to AMC. I really learned a lot at the outdoor farm show last year when I saw the short-line manufacturers and the amount of IP that's included in their machines. One fellow who was making a pond-cleaning machine and shipping it to Russia had three or four patents on the machine. I asked him whether he used the universities or the colleges for the patents, and he kind of laughed at me. He said, “No, I do it myself.” For some manufacturers, getting patents is going to be a bit more difficult. You mentioned financing.
In terms of the non-tariff measures, in the table we have from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, section N talks about the intellectual property covering patents. The industry committee just started an IP study this morning. We want to increase our exports to $75 billion in agriculture, and we're hoping a lot of that has to do with machinery.
I want to touch on the IP barriers. How can we improve access for the manufacturers to get their own IP registered, so when they are shipping to Russia we protect Canadian ideas?