Thank you, Chair and Minister.
I have two questions, really, if there's time, Minister, one on country-of-origin labelling and the other relative to the trade action; and two, on the Canadian Wheat Board as a state trading enterprise at the WTO.
First, I think it goes without saying that the official opposition is extremely disappointed with the government's inaction on challenging the United States' country-of-origin labelling in a comprehensive way. The consequences are very severe. I don't know if Canadians really realize this, but our hog exports to the United States are now down 60%, our slaughter cattle exports are down 20%, and our feeder cattle are down 50%. We're losing the hog industry in this country. They're going broke.
It's a blatant trade restriction on the part of the Americans, and yesterday the minister asked for a panel. While we're the boy scouts in terms of international trade, abiding by the rules, the Americans are increasing their exports into our marketplace. So every day that goes by means that we have producers in more financial difficulty.
My question to you is, on this dispute panel, which we respect, what is the timeframe within which the process will move forward? My concern is that if it's a long timeframe, then the Americans have really been rewarded for violating the trade action. We all know around this table that even when a trade panel does rule, the Americans seldom abide by the international rules.