International Trade Committee on Feb. 4th, 2014

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Have you had a chance to use our trade services offices overseas?

[Rhonda Driediger]

I have. Yes.

[Jasbir Sandhu, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

So you find that the trade commission is a valuable service?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Time is gone. The answer is yes.

Mr. Hoback, go ahead.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I'll let you answer that. Have they been valuable for you to use? The trade offices that you utilized, have they been good and cooperative?

[Debbie Etsell]

Very valuable. What we've seen though this last year is the amount of personnel has been reduced vastly. They have had a lot of experience and have been very beneficial. When we go overseas the first thing we do is work with the trade commissioners overseas. They are eager to work with us, and they are very proficient and knowledgeable.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Excellent. I see you're nodding your head, so you agree?

[Rhonda Driediger]

Yes. Especially in China it's very difficult for us to verify because it could be someone's relative or associate or whatever, so we use it to verify the companies—who they are and that they actually say who they are before we have any business dealings with them.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

You touched on non-tariff trade barriers and the problems they can present in a market, for example, like blueberries, if all of a sudden they take an insect or a chemical and say, hey, we have a problem with that. All of a sudden the door shuts closed immediately.

I think that's one thing you will see in CETA and TPP is the process to resolve those types of barriers and actually remove them.

Have you looked at that, and what's your impression on how that will impact the sector?

[Rhonda Driediger]

I think I'll wait for the details.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

That's fair. But I think if you look at it in the macro sense, the fact is that you have a process there that you don't have right now, which has to be beneficial. Correct?

For blueberries I think a 17% tariff going into Europe is the number I've been told, so you must be very excited about that fact. I know we're talking about TPP here, but....

[Debbie Etsell]

I've been very vocal on that one, and that's what I meant by we're excited by what's moving forward right now. We are seeing an environment where these negotiations are finally benefiting the industry, but we have a way to go here. We have a lot of product. We have a product in demand, and we want to see all the negotiations that are on the table right now moving forward.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

So we do the negotiations like CETA, for example, or TPP, and we get the deal done. We talked about the trade officers, but what do you need for infrastructure or for support to go on to that next level and decide which markets, first of all, to target, and target that market and then get penetration. How do we get you to the next level?

[Debbie Etsell]

There are many different facets for working on that, everything from having an agent on the ground who works with the trade commissioners to going and doing incoming and outgoing trade missions with that particular country as well as trade shows.

The B.C. Blueberry Council always exhibits where we can under the Canada pavilion, and we find great benefit to that rather than if we went off by ourselves. If we went to some of these countries—like Malaysia, Singapore, and that—and we went under just B.C. blueberries, the impact when we go under Canadian blueberries is quite a bit different.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Do you see in those markets, blueberry jam for example, in the processed—processed may not be the right word—the value-added sector of the market for blueberries or other crops as being something that will be growing and expanding as you see market access expand further?

[Debbie Etsell]

Definitely. Blueberries being so popular right now, there are countries all over the place jumping on board trying to grow them. The main product we sell is mostly fresh and processed out of Canada, but there is a lot of interest emerging for value-added.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

It's interesting, Chair, instead of talking about TPP, we're already advancing to the next step, and how we take advantage of it. It just shows how excited the witnesses here are in seeing both TPP and CETA moving forward.

Is there any advice you would offer to the government as we move forward? I know you had a few recommendations, but as we get to the final days on TPP, and of course CETA is at the process of drafting the document itself, and the translation, and that....

[Rhonda Driediger]

The devil's in the details so it really comes down to.... Sorry, how many times has that been used? But that's really what our concern is. Again, at the high level, the broad level, looking at this, everything's going I think the way we would like to see it, but the concern will be once we get down to those details, especially with the European one, what has to be traded off, and what may be traded off. That's why we brought Ray with us today.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I know the Europeans can be relatively tricky. They have the ability to do the non-tariff trade barriers very well. I've experienced those through homologation and other aspects. It's nice to know we're going to have a process that actually sets aside what the rules and regulations are. Things like low-level presence, standardization, and regulations on the food sector I think are very important.

[Rhonda Driediger]

Standardization of MRLs, which are maximum residue limits, would be really important, especially in dealing with New Zealand and Australia. Their limits are ridiculously low. They can't import anything from North America, from Canada or the U.S.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

They basically created a non-tariff trade barrier by doing that.

[Rhonda Driediger]

Unfortunately, they need berries. They've been in a drought situation for a long time and they want to import, but they can't.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

It's kind of interesting how they changed the rules when all of a sudden they have demand, and then it changes back when they also have supply.

[Rhonda Driediger]

Yes, there is an MRL for captan in Europe now.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Interesting.

I think, Chair, I'll stop at that point.