Thank you. I will talk in French.
Mr. Chair, I want to begin by congratulating you on being elected to preside over this committee.
My name is Jean-Guy Vincent. I am a hog producer from Sainte-Séraphine, Quebec, and Chair of the Canadian Pork Council's Board of Directors. I am joined by Martin Rice, the Canadian Pork Council's Executive Director.
We prepared for this meeting at the last minute, and I apologize for that. We have no French version of this presentation. I have the English text, and I will have to translate into French as I go.
I want to thank the members of the committee for the opportunity to discuss Bill C-41, An Act to implement the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the Republic of Korea. We hope the House of Commons will pass this bill.
The Canadian Pork Council serves as the national voice for hog producers in Canada. We are a federation of nine provincial pork industry associations, and our purpose is to play a leadership role in achieving and maintaining a dynamic and prosperous Canadian pork sector.
We are pleased that this free trade agreement is nearing the end of its long journey and is close to implementation. We are confident that Canada obtained the best available result for our sector, equivalent to those the United States and the European Union obtained in their free trade negotiations with South Korea.
These negotiations began in 2004, and we recognize that there have been problems in the negotiations with South Korea. We were somewhat disappointed when negotiations appeared to stall in 2007, but we see that the discussions between Canada and Korea, conducted under difficult conditions, have finally had a successful outcome for our sector.