Evidence of meeting #25 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 pork.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Vincent Taddeo  Vice-President International, International, Cavendish Farms
James Bannantine  President and Chief Executive Officer, Aura Minerals Inc.
Wayne McDonald  Senior Vice-President, Corporate Relations, J.D. Irving Limited, Cavendish Farms
César Urias  Director, Latin America, Canada Pork International

11:30 a.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Aura Minerals Inc.

James Bannantine

Absolutely. It also reduces the desire for people to want to illegally immigrate.

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

That's true.

Mr. Taddeo and Mr. McDonald, you talked about your operations. You just highlighted what the effects can be when you're not part of a trade agreement, when you're actually on the outside looking in.

What was the impact back here in Canada on our farmers when you lost that market? Can you give us a little bit of insight into that?

11:30 a.m.

Vice-President International, International, Cavendish Farms

Vincent Taddeo

One of the things we took a look at was the absolute volume that had affected us. Over the last five to seven years, it has affected us, in that market alone, by over 20 million pounds, and 20 million pounds reflects approximately $10 million.

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

So not big dollars, but that quick shock would definitely have an impact on your operations right now.

11:30 a.m.

Vice-President International, International, Cavendish Farms

Vincent Taddeo

It did immediately, and you have to find markets elsewhere, so it did have an impact.

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Of course you're a bigger company so you have to look at realities. I've worked for big companies before. One of the realities you looked at is, if you have the ability to do production in different countries, but one country has an FTA and one doesn't, what do you do? You actually go and produce more in the country with FTA. Is that fair to say?

11:30 a.m.

Vice-President International, International, Cavendish Farms

Vincent Taddeo

You suffer.

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Exactly. So Korea would probably be a good example, then, as we look forward.

You have an outlet in Jamestown, I understand.

11:30 a.m.

Vice-President International, International, Cavendish Farms

Vincent Taddeo

Yes, we do.

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

The U.S. has an FTA, so where are you going to ship your potatoes? If you have a chance to go to Korea, they are going to go into Jamestown, right?

11:30 a.m.

Vice-President International, International, Cavendish Farms

Vincent Taddeo

Exactly. There's a reality there that you should be aware of. Jamestown is located in the centre north of the United States. Getting the free trade deal with Canada, and us being in Lethbridge, Alberta, you save approximately 7¢ per pound. On french fries that is huge.

Having a Canada free trade deal with Korea: huge boom for us. We already have orders in-house for approximately 40 million pounds if we get a free trade deal.

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Again, that reflects the domino effect. It comes back into Canada so into Lethbridge, and that's an opportunity—

11:30 a.m.

Vice-President International, International, Cavendish Farms

Vincent Taddeo

It's huge.

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

—where the farmers there have another market for their product to go to.

11:30 a.m.

Vice-President International, International, Cavendish Farms

Vincent Taddeo

It affects everybody, from truckers to processors to plant workers to even the trains we have over on that side and to shipping lines—everybody and their families.

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Again, let's look at the other scenario from some in the opposition party. The opposition party says we shouldn't do this trade agreement for one reason or another. The reality is that the impact back in Canada on the individual farmer, or the logistics chain, or people supporting that infrastructure in your case would be huge, would it not?

11:30 a.m.

Vice-President International, International, Cavendish Farms

Vincent Taddeo

Very much so. I couldn't agree with you more.

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

What would you recommend as we move forward on trade agreements like Korea and trade agreements like Honduras? I know you talked a little bit about the FTA in countries like that. We have some countries in Central America that at this point in time just aren't willing to do that. I look at it and say, if you do Honduras, it kind of opens the door for other countries down the road. Would you not agree with that?

11:30 a.m.

Vice-President International, International, Cavendish Farms

Vincent Taddeo

Exactly. You're aware of CA4. Basically Canada started discussing this thing back in 2002 when they started doing Costa Rica. At that point in time in 2005, the U.S. strong-armed their Congress. They got it through very quickly, and immediately they went to zero. So we ended up losing a huge amount of our business in that marketplace. We retained some of the customers just so that we could stay there. We're doing it at a loss.

Canada changed tack, and they went from multilateral, trying to get all the four or five countries at a time, to bilateral, one-on-one country. They have been successful with Honduras at least in the written format, and we're very, very pleased with that. We want to congratulate Canada for having achieved that. We want to see more of that. And you are right, because I think once Honduras gets online, then El Salvador will come in, Nicaragua will come in, and I think there will be more.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

I agree with you on that.

Mr. Urias, you talked about the pork sector. Now—

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield

You'll have to be very quick.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK

Then maybe I'll stop there. My question would probably open another five minutes.

11:35 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield

You have about five seconds, so I think that's a very good idea.

Mr. Pacetti, the floor is yours.

April 29th, 2014 / 11:35 a.m.

Liberal

Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for coming. I have quick questions for each of you.

Mr. Bannantine, I'm looking at a copy of your brief. Thank you, because we sometimes don't get anything. What is the direct benefit for the...with this free trade agreement? Whether there's a free trade agreement or not, for your company it doesn't really matter. The mine is there. You're still going to exploit the mine. What is the benefit?

11:35 a.m.

President and Chief Executive Officer, Aura Minerals Inc.

James Bannantine

I was referring to mining in general. There are a lot of new mines that could be built in Honduras. There are Canadian companies exploring. It could be us or it could be somebody else building a new mine. You're right, it doesn't affect our operating decisions much. We expand our mine and we invest in our mine. Our typical capital expenditure for this mine is about $10 million a year.