You have seven minutes.
Evidence of meeting #9 for International Trade in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was jordan.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #9 for International Trade in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was jordan.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:55 p.m.
Bloc
Claude Guimond Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome, gentlemen. I am glad to have you here. Your presentations were interesting. I have a few short questions to help us, my colleagues and me, to better understand.
You say that you presently export worldwide 5 to 10% of your pulses. Is that correct?
3:55 p.m.
President, Grain Growers of Canada
No, that's what the tariff is, it's a 5% to 10% tariff level now. That would be eliminated under the free trade agreement.
3:55 p.m.
Executive Director, Grain Growers of Canada
We would export well over 50% of the pulses we produce in Canada. This is one potential market. India is a very large market for our pulses. Other countries in the Middle East are also markets for our pulses. We export a lot of pulses.
3:55 p.m.
Bloc
Claude Guimond Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
We are dealing here with the Canada-Jordan trade agreement. Did you assess its potential? You said that Jordan could serve as a foothold to develop our market in the Middle East. Did you do any studies or do you feel there is a significant market there and could you quantify it?
3:55 p.m.
Executive Director, Grain Growers of Canada
No, we have not done any studies on that. But before we came to this meeting, we talked with the Canadian Wheat Board; we talked with Pulse Canada, who does the exports; we phoned up the Canadian Canola Growers and we talked with the canola exporters. We did our research that way; we talked with the grains, oilseeds, and pulses organizations as to the market potential.
Again, it's the pulse growers who say there are opportunities not just for pulses but also some opportunities for special crops, canary seed, for example, as a bird seed. There are some other small special crops too. But there's been no definitive study done of what you're asking for, that I know of, within the agriculture sector.
3:55 p.m.
Bloc
Claude Guimond Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
We talk mainly about exports of raw products. In a market like Jordan, and maybe soon the Middle East, do you see any opportunity for value-added products, such as semen and genetics on the beef side? Do you believe there are opportunities in this part of the world in terms of added-value products?
3:55 p.m.
Executive Director, Grain Growers of Canada
Perhaps Mr. Masswohl can talk on the beef side, but on the grains side, to a large degree, in some of these countries, the people process stuff locally or domestically. People will take the wheat they grow in their country down to a local miller, who grinds it. So to a large degree, the market really is for the raw products, which store better and can be distributed in some of these climates. These will be distributed out to the markets, creating jobs for the local people in these communities to process. That's what we see in some markets.
With a more refined market like the European Union, I think there's a much better chance to export value-added products to it. But in a place like Jordan, which is very price sensitive, I think it will primarily be the raw products on the grains side that will continue to go there.
3:55 p.m.
Director, Government and International Relations, Canadian Cattlemen's Association
I guess the three of us at this table would probably consider beef to be a value-added grain product.
Is that fair to say?
3:55 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
3:55 p.m.
Director, Government and International Relations, Canadian Cattlemen's Association
Okay.
I guess I would reiterate that Jordan is probably going to be a small market for us. I think if we looked at the last five years, we shipped about one tonne in total to Jordan over those five years. We think we can increase that up to a few hundred tonnes, which, on a percentage basis, is quite impressive, but it's still going to be a fairly small market.
As we were formulating our position on Jordan and really looking at its potential, we talked to the companies that export the beef. Are they interested? Are they going to travel to Jordan, and those sorts of things? Basically, what a few of them told us is that they're very interested in the region. They're very interested in Saudi Arabia, which was previously one of our top ten export markets, in 2002. As they're in the area, why not take a couple of days and check out the potential and the buyers in Jordan and start to develop those relationships? I'm not sure if “foothold” is the right word, but if you're in that area anyway and you have a free trade agreement, all of it certainly helps.
I guess I didn't mention the tariff situation on the beef side. Right now the beef tariffs range from 5% on steaks, beef cuts, and some of the organ meats, and 10% on embryos and semen for the genetics. If we can get rid of the 10% tariff on genetics, that will create some opportunities. Tariffs on the processed products, the sausages and some of these processed meats, range from 21% to 28%. So we'll see what happens with the elimination of those tariffs. There are some significant tariffs, particularly on the value-added side.
4 p.m.
Bloc
Claude Guimond Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Mr. Masswohl, you mentioned halal products. They are very important in order to gain entry to this market because it is a requirement. Are you equipped in Canada to slaughter the halal way, as well as to do primary and secondary halal processing in order to serve this market, or would you need to acquire this capacity? This could be a very promising market since Jordan is a potential centre for distribution to other Middle Eastern countries.
4 p.m.
Director, Government and International Relations, Canadian Cattlemen's Association
Yes, we have a halal capability in Canada, and we have had some export success to Saudi Arabia and other countries that have that requirement. As well, you can imagine that there's a growing halal demand right here in Canada and in the United States, and that is an area that's growing.
One of things we talk about at the agriculture committee is the competitiveness of slaughtering cattle in Canada, both on the commodity side and on some of these niche sides as well. We have some work to do to improve the competitiveness of slaughtering in Canada versus, say, the United States. This is something we're definitely working on with your counterparts over in the agriculture committee.
4 p.m.
Bloc
Claude Guimond Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
I would like a clarification. We talk about halal products. Does this have to do with breeding or does this apply only to the equipment used for processing and slaughtering?
4 p.m.
Director, Government and International Relations, Canadian Cattlemen's Association
My understanding is that it's for the slaughtering and how the meat is treated. There will be certain inspections all through the slaughtering and the deconstructing of the animal. They're looking for certain characteristics. I'm no expert on it, but to my understanding it's at the slaughter facility.
4 p.m.
Bloc
Claude Guimond Bloc Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
Do you agree that this is a promising market, a niche market that we could develop and make use of?
4 p.m.
Director, Government and International Relations, Canadian Cattlemen's Association
Very much.
April 15th, 2010 / 4 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to welcome our witnesses. As usual, you gave excellent presentations. Thank you very much for coming back.
I'd also like to welcome my old colleague Mr. Harris back to the trade committee. It's very nice to see him back.
I want to start with two issues.
The tariff tables that you brought are very helpful. We'll be looking at the blues over the next couple of days, but particularly in your presentations I think those will be useful for the committee.
The first question concerns consultations. Were you consulted at any stage around Canada-Jordan, and if so how? We had some discussions with departmental officials a couple of days ago, and it didn't seem clear at all that there were any consultations, even with some of the key export sectors that would be impacted by the agreement.
Secondly, I have questions concerning promotional budgets. We've talked about this before, but it turned out from the testimony we got on Tuesday that the total promotional budget of the Government of Canada for export products in the Jordanian market right now is a grand total of zero, and if we implemented this agreement it would go up to a grand total of $12,000 per year. That's less than what your average corner store spends in New Westminster marketing to an area of a few blocks. We're talking about a market of six million people.
I'm wondering what promotional budgets you would be interested in putting into Jordan. Are you aware of how much money other governments, for example those of the United States and Australia, are putting into marketing to Jordan, compared with the $12,000 that the Conservative government wants to put in?
Could you also mention the total promotional budgets that you have now, through the federal government and through the ranchers, grain growers, pulse growers themselves? What is your total worldwide budget for this year, 2010, for Canadian exports?
You're both very important industries, and I just don't think the government pays more than lip service to developing these markets by providing the promotional oomph that other countries provide.
4:05 p.m.
Director, Government and International Relations, Canadian Cattlemen's Association
Concerning the first part of your question, on consultation, I'm trying to remember. It was actually quite brief. I remember the first meeting we had with the negotiators. They advised us—this was after the first negotiating round—that Jordan had offered immediate duty-free access on beef. We said, that's good.
To be honest with you, that was the extent of the consultations. We wish they could all be like that, but they haven't been.
On promotional budgets for Jordan in particular, we had this conversation a bit before. The way we do our beef promotion is that the Beef Information Centre is responsible for the Canadian and the U.S. markets, and then we have the Canada Beef Export Federation, which is responsible for beef promotion in the rest of the world.
The Beef Information Centre is a division of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, and I can share with you that budget. Approximately $10.5 million is the 2010-11 budget for the Beef Information Centre; that's for Canada and the U.S.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
That's both federal government plus the contribution of ranchers.
4:05 p.m.
Director, Government and International Relations, Canadian Cattlemen's Association
Right. And this year our government contribution proportion is larger than it was last year. Last year the government contribution was approximately 60% of the total. This year the government contribution is just a shade under three-quarters .
4:05 p.m.
Director, Government and International Relations, Canadian Cattlemen's Association
Right. When we were talking last time, I didn't have the numbers with me. I was probably a little off in my guess the last time around.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
How would that compare with the U.S., Australia...? We've talked about some of these figures before. The United States offers many times more.