The agriculture issue is not by any means settled. Again, it's a temporary reprieve on part of the agricultural exports. In fact, in the last 10 years that you have been a minister and that the Liberal government has been in power, the Chinese government has used our agriculture and our farmers as a baton to beat Canada with, to coerce us, over four or five times, I believe. Consistently this is an issue that you have failed to resolve in the long term.
One of the three standards for allowing these vehicles into Canada, which you cited the last time you were here, was labour standards. I want to go back to the forced labour issue.
You said to my colleague Mr. Falk that your point of view will always be to follow what the UN is saying. The UN is unequivocal, and of course, as you know from the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, they've said that there were various coercive methods being used to secure surplus labourers in Xinjiang. Serious human rights violations have been committed in XUAR.
A 2022 UN report says there are indications that labour and employment schemes appear to be discriminatory in nature and involve elements of coercion. In January of this year, a UN report says, “UN experts...expressed deep concern regarding persistent allegations of forced labour”. The report quoted them as saying, “In many cases, the coercive elements are so severe that they may amount to forcible transfer and/or enslavement as a crime against humanity.”
If you're agreeing with the UN, how are you allowing the import of vehicles that may have aluminum in them, for example, which has been traced to forced labour help? How are you justifying this?