Biotechnology is the challenge in a lot of markets just from a regulatory point of view. It's particularly challenging in Europe. As I explained earlier, the main issue there would be that Canadian canola farmers benefit from new seed innovation that the companies provide: better weed resistance, better yields, better stand establishment. These products make the producer better agronomically and better competitively.
The challenge with these products is that they require regulatory approval in all the markets that we ship to. It can take an extraordinarily long time to get that approval in some markets. Europe is one of them. While in Canada a technology like this might be approved in 18 months, in Europe it can often be three or four years. During that time, the company, the seed innovator, cannot commercialize the product in Canada. They are voluntarily withholding the product until it gets approval in the major markets. So the Canadian farmer doesn't have access to that new seed innovation until it's approved in other markets.
There's an important reason for that: to be sure we don't jeopardize our exports by having an unapproved seed technology in a shipment of Canadian canola to a market. What we're trying to do, and where the agreement will help, is that it sets up a consultative body within a trade environment, which is a new thing for us, whereby we're not just talking about the human and health aspects—which won't change—we're talking about the administrative procedures of approving those products in a timely manner.