Mr. Chair, members, thank you very much for providing the opportunity for me to speak to you today. The Canada Beef Export Federation is an independent, non-profit industry association representing Canada's cattle producers, beef processors, and key suppliers who are pursuing international markets for our products.
To begin with, the Canada Beef Export Federation fully endorses the pursuit of a free trade agreement between Canada and the Republic of Korea. That said, re-establishment of trade in Canadian processed beef products on at least the same terms and time as American beef must be an absolute requirement of continuing free trade agreement negotiations with that government. All exploratory and ongoing discussions regarding a free trade agreement should be suspended until trade is re-established for all processed beef products from Canada, including boneless beef, bone-in beef, offal products, bones and rendered products, and these derived from all ages of cattle.
Once that has been met, we do have a number of requirements for any resulting agreement, and of course they centre on zeroing of import tariffs for our products in Korea. We now face a 50% import tariff, and we believe that zeroing of import tariffs would give us approximately $100 million a year of additional export potential for that market.
We also call, of course, for no continuation of tariffs or tariff escalation for value-added beef products. For example, beef jerky and other traditional Korean-manufactured beef products are virtually impossible to sell because of even higher tariffs. We also require that all restrictions on where the live cattle are procured from, or purchased from, by Canadian beef processing facilities must be removed from any bilateral agreement between our two countries. At times we've been restricted in being able to purchase cattle in the United States, which from time to time is valuable for beef processors across Canada to do.
South Korea must commit to provide access to Canadian beef equal to the most preferential basis offered to any other country that is also a member of the World Trade Organization. It ensures that whatever deal we make with Korea we're not leaving anything on the table, and as a most favoured nation partner with South Korea, that is exactly what we demand.
South Korea must commit that their food safety and animal disease as well as labelling standards must be consistent with recognized international standards and not result in additional trade restrictions. Particularly at this time, we're closed due to an unsubstantiated closure to their market because of our case of BSE--and cases of BSE--in Canada.
Looking forward, South Korea must commit to not using animal welfare or environmental standards as a way of restricting or in any way interfering with the free flow of products from our industry to their consumers. While that is not front and centre today, these are issues that are beginning to arise in various markets. This must be stopped in advance of it becoming a problem for us in Korea, through the negotiation process.
Finally, our industry does recommend very real caution in immediately opening the Canadian market to Korean cattle and beef. This is absolutely consistent with our free trade philosophy and policies. We're concerned that South Korea must first control various animal disease problems that they've not been able to control, and for our industry, foot-and-mouth disease is front and centre. They also have various pig-based diseases that are a concern generally for our industry as well.
So our industry has a goal of increasing beef exports to Korea to 50,000 metric tonnes, over $230 million per year, by the year 2015. If we eliminate tariffs, we'll add another $100 million in beef sales to that market. In 2002, our exports to South Korea were 17,000 tonnes, approximately $70 million. South Korea has been closed to us since May 23, 2003, when we diagnosed our first case of BSE.
We would support the Government of Canada initiating trade remedies with South Korea. We both belong to the World Trade Organization and to the World Organisation for Animal Health, or OIE. We would recommend that the Government of Canada initiate mediation and dispute settlement processes within both of these bodies we both belong to in order to clarify the nature of the trade suspension and identify remedies whereby we can return to profitably exporting Canadian beef to an important market, that being the Republic of Korea.
Thank you.