Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Wells.
Like me, you heard the testimony of the Minister of International Trade a little earlier. Perhaps we could be satisfied with what he tells us about supply management. He is saying that the government intends to comply with the motion of November 22, 2005 to the letter. I could be satisfied with that since I introduced that motion.
However, you should take nothing for granted in politics. It's not because someone takes a certain position at some point that you shouldn't check to see what action the government has taken on this matter. As I mentioned to the minister earlier, I am concerned about the WTO negotiations and the bilateral negotiations with the European Union because sometimes we can hear the government's ministers state contradictory positions.
For example, an agreement was almost reached at the WTO last July. The texts simply provided for a drop in over-quota tariffs and a decline in tariffs protecting products subject to supply management. Fortunately, there was a disagreement among the seven countries that had begun to negotiate, but Canada's Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Mr. Ritz, and the former Minister of International Trade, Mr. Michael Fortier, both stated publicly that they were disappointed that there had been a misunderstanding and that there was no agreement at the WTO on agriculture.
In the same breath, they told us they wanted, at all costs, to protect supply management come hell or high water. That's contradictory. Moreover, another former minister, Mr. Chuck Strahl, told the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food that, if all the other countries made a decision and reached an agreement at the WTO, Canada did not want to be isolated and alone.
Do you think that, for the good of Canadian and Quebec agriculture, in which the vast majority of producers are subject to supply management, it would be legitimate for Canada to withdraw from the bargaining table if ever an agreement was reached that did not protect gains with regard to the supply management system?