Evidence of meeting #20 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was tractors.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
That makes sense, but will it make more sense for you to open a facility here or in Europe?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Alliance Grain Traders Inc.
We are origin-based processors. We will process finished products in Canada. We will put them into packaged form, and we will use containers and intermodals to ship them to Europe.
We think Canada is a very competitive jurisdiction for processing food-safe, identity-preserved products. In fact, we're more competitive than offloading bulk material in Europe, transporting it throughout the European Union, and then distributing it. We think it's the way to go.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Great. Thanks.
Mr. Janzen, this is in the same vein. I'm trying to understand what the problem is right now in your company that you're not able to sell in western Europe, but you can sell in eastern Europe. Did I understand correctly?
I'm referring specifically to your farm equipment.
Chief Financial Officer, Bühler Industries Inc.
That's correct.
Specifically on our tractors, we sold $100 million into eastern Europe two years ago, and $40 million last year. Eastern Europe is a very large marketplace for us. I think a lot of the agricultural manufacturing companies located in Canada have large exports of their product outside of Canada.
One of the issues we have for western Europe is that we have to do special conditioning of our tractors. We are working through this process. It's going to cost several hundred thousand dollars. There are no other countries that require us to make these changes to our tractors. The lighting on the tractors, which works in Canada, the U.S., and all of the other countries, is specifically required to be different for Europe—
Liberal
Chief Financial Officer, Bühler Industries Inc.
—or the braking needs to be different.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Sorry.
These requirements are not going to be part of CETA.
Chief Financial Officer, Bühler Industries Inc.
If that drops off, it will make it a lot easier because—
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
I'm asking. I'm not saying “if”.
Is it going to be part of CETA? Because if you are able to sell into eastern Europe, and there are certain requirements in western Europe, I don't see how that's going to be part of this agreement. Correct me if I'm wrong. Is this a requirement or a recommendation you're asking us for?
Chief Financial Officer, Bühler Industries Inc.
We are saying we would like to table this and ask if we can put this into the CETA. Anything that complies with North American standards should be able to ship into western Europe. Right now, western European manufacturers can ship into Canada and the United States based on their process and their certification, so why is it that we would need to certify our tractors here to ship into western Europe, when—
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Can you put something in writing for us, and send it to the clerk?
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
I have one more question, again in terms of investment. I see you also have a facility in Russia.
Will the investments be made here, or will they be made in Europe due to the fact that you're going to be expecting to ship more equipment once CETA is signed?
Chief Financial Officer, Bühler Industries Inc.
The investment will be made here. All of the tractors we have right now are made in Canada, in Winnipeg specifically.
In Russia what we have right now is what I would call a sub-assembly process. The tractors are actually manufactured here and tested, and then taken apart. We ship them in containers, and then reassemble them in Russia. With the reassembly process, they're shipped as parts and then they're called “manufactured in Russia” in order to comply with Russian standards.
The benefit is that we're shipping the tractors in containers and there is a lower cost of freight and handling. Then they are reassembled for the Russian marketplace. For Ukraine and Kazakhstan, we actually ship our tractors as what they call ro-ro, roll on-roll off, which means the entire tractor is shipped on a deck of a ship.
Conservative
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
I'd like to thank our guests for being here today. It has certainly been a helpful conversation about CETA. We have one individual who doesn't think too much of it at this point—who might come around—and others who have a different view.
Perhaps, Mr. Cox, in the spirit of that, if I can, it was interesting to hear Mr. Davies ask Mr. Vidler.... In a world where there could be winners and losers in this deal, what are the positives of CETA, based on your analysis?
Senior Researcher Officer, Research, Canadian Union of Public Employees
The positives?
I don't have any analysis for you for the positives.
Conservative
Senior Researcher Officer, Research, Canadian Union of Public Employees
We do analysis based on questions on what our members have brought up, and those have to deal with procurement and issues of investor state, and investment and maintenance of public services.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
Wow.
No disrespect intended at all, but you didn't see anything in this deal that would be good for Canada?
Senior Researcher Officer, Research, Canadian Union of Public Employees
Good for Canada?
