Thank you for that question. I'll do my best to give you a concise answer about what I think would happen in the event that the U.S. Congress moves on the ratification of their agreement before Canada moves.
First, what would happen is they would have a 15% advantage on duties. As I mentioned, that would represent about $135 U.S. per metric tonne. That is a significant disadvantage for Canadian growers competing against them. What would naturally happen is that because of that disparity in price, importers in Colombia would clearly be looking to the U.S. as the origin or source of green lentils. There is an increasing amount of green lentil production in the northern tier United States and the Palouse in Washington. What they would do, then, is go into that market, taking away market from Canada.
Keep in mind that there are a couple of other forces in play that have come up in the last few months. The Canadian dollar is extremely strong right now. It weakened yesterday from 94¢ to 93¢, but we were on our way to 95¢ or 96¢ and could be back there fairly soon. This is a serious concern. If we end up being at par with the U.S. dollar, it becomes even tougher for us to compete.
Also, the U.S. and Canada both are dealing with very low prices of wheat, and it would become obvious to U.S. growers to increase green lentil production and take that market while Canada is still negotiating the FTA with Colombia. That's my view.