Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen, for your presentations and making yourselves available today.
It's always a concern or problem for processors and producers out there when governments.... This is a multi-jurisdictional oversight and implementation, and it really is problematic. I saw the ball being tossed back and forth a couple of times there in your presentations. These anti-circumvention measures are a real irritant, and have been for quite some time.
Mr. Seppey, you talked about Agriculture heading up a working group. That was structured some years ago. We have been looking at this over that time frame. Again, we're to the point where this is expediting, getting larger. You made that point with spent fowl. We seem to be the recipient of 110% of U.S. production, so there's a lot of chicken sneaking in here that shouldn't be a part of that program at all. It comes down to the job that government is doing or not doing at the border to make sure that these don't grow any further, that they actually start to be pushed back to some extent.
They're stretching guidelines. I won't go so far as to say that people are cheating, but they're certainly stretching the guidelines. The original mandate of the duty deferral program, which I think someone said started in 1996, really didn't pertain to food at all. There is a separate program under dairy and chicken where those come in as processed items and go out again, but that's a stand-alone program. When you look at the changes that have happened, the ability now to have things like diafiltered milk.... It gets around some of the tariffs and duties because it really doesn't fit in all the agreements. It's a brand new product.
There are things that need to be put in place. Whether Finance leads it or CBSA really doesn't lead the program, it's up to somebody to point out the problems. I know that mandate letters have gone out to ministers and so on in this new government. What kind of plan and timeline have you been structured to come up with to address these types of anti-circumvention measures?