These gentlemen have forgotten more than I've ever known.
It's great to see the full value chain represented at a panel, because you guys are very synergistic in the way you work. You raise the cow calf, then the barley comes together under the feed lots, and of course then we sell the product overseas. I think that also speaks to the point you made, Rich, on diversity and trade. You talk about our tendency over the years to slide everything south. They had the processing capacity and they sold out the finished goods, but we're seeing some of that change now. We're pulling away from and starting to do more development on our own. I think that's a good thing, but it does take trade deals like TPP, CETA, and so on to make that work. It draws the investments to us for more processing.
You talked about the plant at Balzac opening. I know they're looking with interest at the Japanese market. Of course, everything for Japan has to be age-verified. Sunterra has a Japanese investor I think, and Harmony is looking at that as well. It's important we get this right.
We heard from a few folks so far in different panels that if this were only about tariffs, they'd have no problem supporting it, but the devil is in the details on a number of other clauses. You and I know, and Doug you mentioned this, that rules-based trade is what keeps friends as friends. It's like a good fence. The negotiations on TPP certainly are about tariffs. That's the front line. How concerned are you about non-tariff trade barriers as we saw with country of origin labelling? There are a lot of other issues in TPP, and John you would have seen this too in your negotiations on NAFTA.
How much of a concern is it to you to get beyond the tariff walls and make sure that we have good science-predictable, rules-based trade?