Japan, I did mention; India, I don't believe so. I mentioned Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, and Mexico with increasing focus on the European Union, Russia, and the Middle East, North Africa. Those are the regions of current priority and emerging....
Canadian industry is world-competitive. We export and we compete against the world in export competitors. In Asia we come up against the great South American exporters. In Russia we come up against them in some of our Asian markets and we compete well against them. We're absolutely competitive.
Pre-BSE, in 2003 Canada exported up to 30,000 tonnes of beef in Japan with significant increases. In fact, one commercial contract was signed by one of our export members in March 2003, which would have seen a 50% increase in our sales to Japan just on the back of one trade deal. So we were in fact gaining competitive momentum prior to the trade disruptions associated with BSE.
Are we competitive? Yes. Were we? Yes. How can we be more competitive? With a federal government taking a strategic approach to agriculture market access through the creation of what I would call a centre of excellence in agriculture trade policy, and that through the agriculture Market Access Secretariat.... This is really required as a way of consolidating resources and expertise.
Agriculture trade is complex. It's been complex since the Uruguay Round, when countries weren't allowed to slap on massive import tariffs and put in arbitrary quotas. Since then, all they've had is trumped-up safety protection, and that requires great technical resources, great policy resources, and great political resources to break down those new, very difficult-to-define barriers. When done, we will always trade on that activity. These are the things we need.