Yes, indeed, and we took note of what he said. However, we have to be careful. As I said earlier, the 16,000 tonnes that the government is assigning to fine cheeses represents a significantly higher percentage than is understood at the moment. Actually, since the main target is fine cheeses, the cheese imported from Europe will have a higher value. We are certainly not talking about 6% here, but an impact that will be significantly higher, somewhere in the order of 30%. Some people at a meeting yesterday even talked about an even greater impact. That is the first point.
We met with Frédéric Seppey, who was the chief negotiator for agriculture in the free trade agreement. One of the first questions we asked him was how the 17,700 tonnes, 16,000 of them in fine cheeses, had been determined. The answer was very simple: since May 2009, the negotiations included no increase at all, and Canada was very insistent on that. But Europe wanted 25,000 tonnes. Canada maintained its position until January 2013. So that means that, from 2009 to 2013, people knew that it would have a significant impact.
In a visit to Brussels in October 2013, Mr. Harper managed to reach an agreement to set the amount at 17,500 tonnes in exchange for exports of Canadian beef and pork. We find it surprising to see an agreement on such a major amount with so little analysis. For four years, we maintained our position that there should be no increase.
If, for four years, you agree that the increase must be kept at zero, you are implicitly admitting that there is a major impact.