Thank you very much for having me here this morning.
On behalf of our members, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to talk about the free trade agreement eventuality with Canada and the Pacific Alliance.
Canada Pork International was established in 1991. We are a joint venture of the Canadian Pork Council and the Canadian Meat Council, and we represent Canadian packers and trading companies. Our focus is on having market access and promoting Canadian pork in foreign markets. We're involved in trade and supporting companies doing business in over 100 markets.
The Canadian pork industry exports over $4 billion annually. We're exporting the equivalent of 50,000 sea containers every year. We're a huge driver for jobs, and all those containers are getting on trucks and trains before they're getting shipped, so we are a big mover in the agribusiness sector.
Pork is the largest meat industry in Canada. We're 70% dependent on export, and our success is directly linked to the government's ability to provide more competitive market access conditions than our competitors—mainly the U.S. and the EU.
As Mr. Roy was saying, this is why the announcement of CPTPP is such great news for the Canadian pork industry. Not only does it give us an opportunity to have better access to the market for chilled pork in Japan, where we're competing head-to-head with the U.S.—sharing 50% of the market with them—it also prevents us from falling behind on frozen products from the EU, which is now putting in place a free trade agreement. While we're still feeling the impact of falling behind on the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement, and we've seen our business negatively affected there, we're really positive about this news. It's going to have a tremendous impact on our industry.
I'll get into more specific details. I'm going to go to the four partners of the Pacific Alliance. Mexico is our fourth-largest market, with $200 million of trade, but we're already covered through NAFTA and CPTPP. It's a very important market, but there's not a whole lot extra we can gain. It's the same thing with Chile, where the FTA has come to maturity. Over the years, there were TRQs and tariffs, but now we have free trade just like the U.S. We're on a level playing field with them.
I think where we have the most gains to make is in Colombia. With their FTA, Colombia recognized the U.S. as having pork free of trichina, so they are able to ship fresh, chilled pork and have access to the retail market in Colombia. That gives them access to higher-value markets.
Also, the conditions right now are so different. It's a free market for the U.S., so there are no TRQs or tariffs. Right now, after 6,000 tonnes a year, there's a 41% tariff kicking in for Canada, so our trade pretty much stops at that point. There's a great benefit to be had by catching the U.S. Just to give you an example, we're shipping around $30 million every year to Colombia, compared with $200 million from the U.S. I don't think the market would grow, because they already have access to the U.S. market. I think we would be able to get a much better share of that very good market. It's not a primary market, but it's an excellent secondary market for a lot of pork products.
What's important in the pork business—I just came back to Canada Pork International, and I've been in the trading business for the last six years—is having access to the best return market for every single cut. This is where it's important. If they like some specific bones in Colombia and they're paying more than others for that type of product, this is where we're adding value to all the businesses in Canada. It's not about just looking at the market as a whole. You have to look at the opportunities for specific products, and this is where we're creating value.
We have an FTA with Chile, but right now it's 500 tonnes a year of TRQ, and after that there's a 25% duty. I told you about the 50,000 containers earlier. This is 20 containers, so it's pretty limited. It's not a huge market, but we can definitely grow our business in that market.
As I mentioned, the three main potential gains are the following: in Colombia, getting access to chilled products and having a level playing field with the U.S. on tariffs, and also increasing the TRQ allocation or having free trade with Peru.
In conclusion, we're supporting the FTA with a Pacific trade alliance because we trust that the Canadian government has the resources to deal with all the trade deals in place and on all fronts at the same time. CPTPP, NAFTA, China, ASEAN, and the Pacific trade alliance are all priorities for us. Where we can measure the value of this deal for the Canadian pork industry is how quickly we can achieve an agreement. We're going to get to free trade with Colombia in 2023 and Peru in 2025. If we're in a position where this is going to take four or five years, that decreases the value for us. The conditions are there. We have FTAs with all of those countries. This is something that could be achieved quickly. To me, this is a very important factor in the success of the pork industry.
Thank you.