Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the committee for the invitation to be here today.
It's always a pleasure to share how the canola industry can prosper from more open, free markets. Today our particular comments will focus on how we can eliminate barriers in Mercosur, as well as how Mercosur compares with other high-priority opportunities in Asia.
Before I start, I'd like to briefly describe the Canola Council. We're a value-chain organization representing the whole canola industry, from the 43,000 Canadian farmers to seed developers, to processors who crush the seed to make oil for humans and meal for livestock, as well as the exporters who send canola for processing at its destination.
International trade is definitely the lifeblood of our industry. More than 90% of everything we grow in Canada is exported in one form or another. We have a plan to export even more. “Keep it Coming” is our industry's strategic plan to increase demand for canola oil, meal, and seed, and to meet this demand through sustainable production and yield improvement, achieving 26 million metric tons of production by 2025.
To put that in perspective, it means that when we achieve that plan we'll add $4.5 billion worth of exports in order to meet Canada's $75-billion target for agrifood exports by 2025. To do this, we need to keep eliminating barriers to trade and we're very appreciative that the committee is focusing on how we can do that.
Now I'd like to focus on our perspective as to how Mercosur compares with other opportunities in Asia for our sector. While we support eliminating trade barriers wherever they exist, the canola industry does not see Mercosur countries providing significant export opportunities for our sector. We do see incredible growth opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region.
For example, implementing the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership could increase our value-added canola exports by $780 million per year.
When the CPTPP is implemented, the industry can recover from our current competitive disadvantage. For our exports to Japan, we're at a 7% disadvantage compared to Australian canola oil. Australia has an agreement with Japan, and Canada does not.
Similarly, a trade agreement with China would bring significant growth opportunities for canola. Our industry estimates that eliminating tariffs on canola into China would support an additional 33,000 Canadian jobs and bring an extra $1.2 billion worth of value from our exports, so we encourage Canada to start negotiations with China so we can bring more jobs and growth here to Canada. As we pursue negotiations with Mercosur, we must ensure that the CPTTP is implemented and negotiations with China proceed.
Now that negotiations with Mercosur countries have started, however, we should use these discussions to eliminate barriers facing our exports. As the wealth of Mercosur economies grows, their demand for our healthy oil will grow as well. A trade agreement should eliminate the tariffs that currently face our products. For example, our oil has a tariff of 10%, and our meal has a tariff of 6%. Eliminating these tariffs will help us grow our value-added exports from Canada.
An agreement with Mercosur also presents an opportunity to reduce non-tariff barriers facing our exports. Many similarities exist between the agricultural exports of our country and the agricultural exports of Mercosur countries. As large grain and oilseeds producers, we both export most of what we produce and face many of the same barriers in our export markets, barriers related to the spurious use of sanitary and phytosanitary measures, as well as barriers related to biotechnology. A free trade agreement between Canada and Mercosur has the potential to build momentum for disciplines in these areas, between our countries and beyond.
In closing, canola has grown to a Canadian success story because we have had access to international markets free of tariff and non-tariff barriers. We're excited to help meet Canada's target of $75 billion in exports, and eliminating more barriers is what's going to help us get there. Focusing on ratifying the CPTTP, advancing trade talks with China, and eliminating barriers in Mercosur are important steps to help us get there.
We hope we'll have success in this endeavour, so that we can continue to provide excellent opportunities in terms of Canadian jobs and the 250,000 Canadians who are currently employed by the canola sector.
Thank you very much.