Thank you, Jasmin.
We'll get into our priorities and recommendations. I want to say, first and foremost, that we encourage the government to move forward on ratifying this agreement as soon as possible. We have experienced a lot of uncertainty in international trade over the past few years, and this would help bring some needed stability with Canada's largest trading partner.
In addition, we're very pleased to see a small business chapter, as Jasmin pointed out, included in this agreement, which recognizes the particular challenges small businesses face when it comes to trade. If we want to see more small business engage in trade, we would encourage the government to move quickly on many of the ideas and principles found in the small business chapter and throughout the agreement.
While eliminating and/or lowering duties is important, almost more important to smaller businesses is to focus on making border processes easier. This includes improving how quickly trucks can cross the border but also finding ways to clarify and simplify customs processes and paperwork. In particular, things like the rules of origin can be a real challenge for smaller firms who may not have the expertise or resources to address issues that may arise in that area.
Also important, though, is to review things like trade facilitation programs such as FAST, C-TPAT and PIP and to make sure that they consider the needs of small and medium-sized companies when they're being designed, and making sure they're easy to access for smaller firms, as well. Too often they're really focused on the large firms and not on the small firms.
I want to touch on a couple of small things. While we'd like to see this agreement move forward as soon as possible, we also know there are a couple of areas of concern. We recognize that certain sectors may be hurt by some aspects of the agreement, and action must be taken to address those issues. For example, we know the dairy industry will see U.S. competitors gain greater access to the Canadian market. To deal with this, the government should provide a detailed transition plan, provide clarity on what compensation will be offered and provide assurances that these measures will work for smaller producers, as well.
As an aside, I should mention that our members in the grain and livestock industries are also struggling due to trade issues with places like China and India, so we would certainly welcome efforts to resolve those issues, as well.
We're also concerned with the higher de minimis. While we agree with the Retail Council, we were pleased to see that the government sort of stuck to the ground and didn't go to the $800 that was being pushed by the Americans. We are still concerned that it is doubling the cost from $20 to $40 for tax purposes and up to $150 for duties.
Small Canadian retail businesses are already facing intense competition from online and international businesses, and we feel that some of these changes will actually make it worse. At the very least, we ask that government direct stronger enforcement of the rules by Canada Post and CBSA. The issue here is that the rules are in place but they're not being applied. We need to see stronger rules enforced and make sure that the rules that are in place are being properly enforced by Canada Post and the CBSA.
We would also encourage the government to look at ways that we could potentially offer other relief should this become an issue for smaller retailers on the ground here in Canada.
These are the issues we hope to address today. We'd like to thank you for the opportunity, and we look forward to your questions.