Evidence of meeting #40 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was remission.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative John Barlow
Thank you, Ms. Mondy and Mr. Lehoux.
Now to Mr. Drouin for six minutes please.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all the witnesses who are appearing before the committee.
My first question is for the representatives of the Department of Finance.
You said you had done an analysis of the supply-managed goods imported into Canada over the last five or six years, and, if I understood your remarks correctly, it came to $6,000, essentially for ice cream. Is that correct?
3:45 p.m.
Director General, International Trade Policy Division, Department of Finance
That was only during the period covered by the remission order, between June 9 and November 23.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
3:50 p.m.
Director General, International Trade Policy Division, Department of Finance
Yes, it is.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I see.
That was to be my last question, but I'll ask it now.
You are currently determining the value of what is entering Canada at present.
How long will the order be in force? What is its end date?
3:50 p.m.
Director General, International Trade Policy Division, Department of Finance
It is June 9 of next year. The order lasts for exactly one year.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
So that would leave about six months to go for the goods to enter Canada.
3:50 p.m.
Director General, International Trade Policy Division, Department of Finance
That's right.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
My next question will be for Global Affairs Canada.
You talked about TRQs versus general import permits, and you've highlighted the differences. What was the rationale for using a general import permit as opposed to a TRQ?
3:50 p.m.
Director General, Market Access, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
The general import permit is for over-quota access; that's what you would use it for. In this case, because there is no TRQ for this particular good at this point in time, there's no need to use a TRQ. The importer would use a general import permit. You don't need an allocation in fact now to import the product.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
In general, if somebody wanted to, they could import as many products as they want to Canada.
3:50 p.m.
Director General, Market Access, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Subject to whether they are allowed to import it, yes. There are other import regulations and rules. You'll hear from some of our other colleagues later about that.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
That question would be for CBSA on how they monitor this, but specifically, once GAC issues the general import permit, its role for monitoring stops there. It's CBSA that would do the monitoring of what comes in.
3:50 p.m.
Director General, Market Access, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
That's correct. They would have the information when the goods are entered into Canada. That's right.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I don't think the goal is to displace our supply-managed sector, obviously, but if suddenly we're caught off guard and the imports are extremely high, Canada would be in a position to determine that the imports are extremely high and we are displacing the marketplace.
3:50 p.m.
Director General, International Trade Policy Division, Department of Finance
I can answer that.
Our monitoring is intended to see what the imports are looking like and whether they are potentially getting to a level that might cause concern. We are looking at that and an assessment would be done at that time to see if any action could potentially be needed, while balancing the overall intention of the remission order as well.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
You've said you didn't have the opportunity, because of the urgency, to necessarily consult prior to. Are you talking to the sector right now?
3:50 p.m.
Director General, International Trade Policy Division, Department of Finance
We have not have much engagement with the sector. They've been in touch with different officials, but not directly with Department of Finance officials.
We're certainly open to having any conversations and would welcome any information they would want to provide on the potential import risks that we should be looking at.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Is that the same thing for you at Global Affairs?
3:50 p.m.
Director General, Market Access, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Exactly. We haven't had any direct discussions with any of the stakeholders, but we're absolutely open to having those discussions and we're continuing to monitor the situation.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Great. I still have two minutes.
I want to go back to the analysis.
The last analysis you did concerned the $6,000 in tariffs for ice cream. Before that, we were not interested in importing goods from Ukraine because of the tariffs in place.
3:50 p.m.
Director General, International Trade Policy Division, Department of Finance
That's right. Because of the tariffs, there were no imports from Ukraine for supply-managed goods.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Right.
There was $6,000 worth of ice cream imports in a six-month period. Are we expecting significant imports of certain goods?
Mr. Lehoux mentioned an exporter in Ukraine. Do you know who is going to be exporting goods from Ukraine, yourself?
3:50 p.m.
Director General, International Trade Policy Division, Department of Finance
We are working very closely with the other departments that have related responsibilities, as my colleague from Global Affairs Canada said. They include the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which also has a role to play in all this. That is how we obtain information in advance about what may be coming.