Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
We've worked with the Beef Export Federation closely on this.
First of all, thank you for taking an interest in this topic, which is important to our industry. We have a close relationship with our good friends in the pork industry and have worked on the country-of-origin labelling issue on an almost daily basis with them.
Like the pork industry, we are an export-dependent industry. Almost half of our production is exported; and with the United States, we've had a very long and integrated, as many would argue, market relationship with them. Last year, we had an almost $2 billion positive trade balance in live cattle and beef trade with them, and it's extraordinarily important to the viability of our industry to have unfettered access to that market and other significant export markets.
We have, over the last number of years, significantly increased our activity regarding our relations with the United States, as well as promoting improved access around the world.
I'm very pleased to turn the mic over to John Masswohl, who coordinates our efforts in this area. He was stationed in Washington for three years with the Government of Canada, and we certainly are very proud, as an organization, to have someone with his expertise working on behalf of our industry.