Thank you, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee.
My name is Richard Phillips, and I am the executive director of the Grain Growers of Canada, Producteurs de grains du Canada. With me today is our president, Doug Robertson.
The invitation today was originally sent to the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance. On behalf of the Grain Growers of Canada, I sit on the board of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, and I'd like to make a few opening comments before I put my grain grower's hat back on again.
The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance is a coalition of Canada's major beef, pork, grain, and oilseed organizations supporting a more open and transparent international trading environment for agriculture and agrifood.
Canada is a world leader in agricultural trade. We are the fourth-largest agrifood exporter in the world, exporting half our beef cattle and wheat, 60% of our hogs and pork, and over 70% of our canola. Across Canada over 90% of farms are directly dependent on export markets. They either export their products or sell them domestically at prices set by the international marketplaces. This represents 200,000 farms and includes the majority of farms in every province, including Ontario and Quebec.
A more open and fair trading environment is essential for the future growth and prosperity of our agrifood sector and Canada's economy as a whole. CAFTA's primary focus, though, is the successful conclusion to the Doha Round of world trade talks.
Bilaterals can achieve major gains for us, but it is difficult to get at the issues of domestic subsidies, domestic supports, and export subsidies. Therefore it is important that you, as politicians of all parties, encourage the government to actively push other countries to get back to the table at WTO.
CAFTA, although our focus is multilaterals, is engaged on one bilateral. The Canada-European trade negotiations, due to the huge population and potential size, are of great interest to our membership. We encourage you to follow the talks closely and to support our efforts to gain access to this highly lucrative marketplace.
At this time I'm taking off my CAFTA hat and giving the floor to the president of the Grain Growers of Canada, Doug Robertson.