Thanks so much, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has a mandate to ensure the long-term economic competitiveness, sustainability and resilience of the Canadian agriculture and agri-food sectors. Canada is among the world's top exporters of agricultural and agri-food products. Because of this strength and a predictable rules-based trading system, the Canadian agriculture and agri-food sector plays a vital strategic role as a global contributor to food security.
Trade facilitates the transfer of goods, services and technologies that enable the agricultural productivity and growth that are vital to achieving greater sustainability and food security worldwide. The role of trade in achieving not only food security and sustainability goals is growing in importance, and countries are increasingly engaging internationally to discuss these issues.
As a strong proponent of the multilateral rules-based system, Canada is an active participant in international discussions on trade and sustainability. For example, at the World Trade Organization, Canada is a co-convenor and an active participant in something known as the TESSD, or trade and environmental sustainability structured discussions, which is a forum where members and external stakeholders can come together to discuss policy approaches and ideas to enable environmentally sustainable trade in a transparent and inclusive manner.
Similarly, as a member of the OECD, Canada is supportive of its research into the relationship between trade and sustainability in the agricultural sector. International discussions on trade and sustainability reflect the broad diversity of tools that countries are considering in their approaches to sustainability. This includes research and innovation, regulatory measures, subsidies and other forms of support, as well as technical capacity building.
Given its critical role in achieving global food security, Canada's view is that measures should be designed in the least restrictive manner possible to achieve their objectives. Canadian farmers are rightfully proud of their legacy of environmental stewardship. It has been built on a commitment to continuous improvement.
Through our sustainable agricultural strategy, our government hopes to be a partner in working towards achieving Canada's broader 2030 and 2050 environment and climate goals. This strategy will help set a shared direction for collective action to improve environmental performance in the sector over the long term in order to advance the sustainability, competitiveness and resilience of the sector.
Agriculture accounts for about 10% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, whereas globally it's about 30%. Over the past 30 years, Canada has doubled its agricultural production, while its greenhouse gas emissions have remained more or less stable. So there has been a significant drop in emissions intensity.
In developing our strategy, having reliable data is a cornerstone of environmental policy, as it will allow us to measure progress.
With respect to border adjustments for carbon, we are aware that a number of countries are exploring this possibility in certain sectors, such as aluminum, steel and fertilizers. To our knowledge, no country has proposed a similar measure in the agricultural sector.
Canada has a long history of working with our allies to promote better international market access and minimize non-tariff barriers to international trade.
As the committee will no doubt hear in the course of its work, agricultural stakeholders in Canada have a strong interest in issues at the interface between the environment and international trade, and they often participate in discussions on these issues, not only in Canada, but also internationally.
I thank committee members for their interest in this topic.