If you don't like it, that's just bad Cape Breton humour.
First I'd like to thank you both, the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance, and of course the Canadian council, for your great support of CETA.
I think this is really all about allowing job creators to create jobs. As I heard you both say, you already do business in Europe, to more or less degrees, and if we can find ways to take tariffs out of the equation and make regulations more compliant—and Ms. Salmon, I certainly heard you say that with some strength—it would be beneficial to your industry, which means beneficial for Canadians and for jobs in this country.
If I could, though, Ms. Salmon, I really appreciated your references to global trends. I'm going to focus on that for a moment. When we think of where the world is going, and this affects the canola industry as well, with its great growth, and the aquaculture, which is not...and that concerns us.... But if we imagine where the world is going population-wise, and who's going to feed the world, Canada has a huge opportunity. I might even say it's a moral obligation to do its part as well, as the world grows. I think we're well positioned to do that, which is why I was struck by your comment that aquaculture is the fastest growing food industry in the world and Canada has not yet capitalized on it.
One of the things you pointed out in one of your slides was that with tariff rates of up to 25%, the EU has not been a priority export market. I get that. In fact, when this committee was in Halifax, we heard from one witness, who indicated, for example, that with fresh fish the tariff rate is at roughly 8%, and for processed fish it's in the mid twenties. That's consistent with what you've said here.
What this does with the greatest majority of tariffs—well over 90% being removed immediately on signing and the balance over several years—we think, is to create an opportunity. I'll touch on the regulatory in a moment, but my question is, will the focus change?
Ms. Salmon, I'm not sure what percentage of the aquaculture industry stays within Canada or is exported. I'd like to know that precisely. Secondly, to what extent—again, notwithstanding the regulatory regime, but the removal of tariffs—will that assist your industry going forward?