International Trade Committee on Feb. 5th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Next is Mr. Lobb.

Please go ahead for five minutes.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Thanks again to our guests.

I want to throw out a question to Mr. Forsyth. We had the minister in on Monday. Of course, we were talking about a different topic. We were talking about the vaccines and so forth. For someone in your position, do you ever get to see the contracts with Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca?

[Doug Forsyth]

No. I have never seen the contracts that exist between the drug companies and the Government of Canada.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Okay. That's way off topic for today, but I was just curious to know if you would ever get a crack at it.

This is in regard to beef. With pork, I think we still have some long-term issues with trichinella. You've heard me say this before, I think; it's very frustrating for somebody who lives in rural Ontario to know that we have a trade deficit with the European Union and the U.K. for beef. What do you see in terms of how can we address this situation? To me, it's ridiculous.

[Doug Forsyth]

I share your frustration and I share the sector's frustration with the inability to export to the European marketplace. There are a couple of issues around being able to export more beef.

First of all, in order to export more beef to the European marketplace, we need to grow more hormone-free beef here in Canada in order to have a larger supply to access that market. The Europeans are not going to take non-hormone-free beef. That's number one.

Number two, we have to work with the sector. We have to figure out a way on the processing side of things in order to have the Europeans understand some of the provisions that we use to process our beef. I think we're working on that. We're working very closely with the sector on those aspects. I'm hopeful that those will come to fruition in the not-too-distant future—

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Also, hopefully.... I'm sorry to cut you off a bit there. I would just hope that as a committee we would put those in as recommendations to encourage the governments of the day on processing capacity, to encourage the beef growers and so forth to go for it, if they're interested in that sector.

[Doug Forsyth]

Yes. Thank you. I would agree with that. I think it's an important sector.

It's an important market for the beef sector, and it has its challenges. I think what you see is that as a result of that, where does the beef go instead? It goes to the United States. It goes to Japan. It goes to other easier markets. As my colleague said, the European market is the largest importer of food products. We need to do a better job of accessing that and making sure that our Canadian exporters can do that.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

All right.

I just want to go back to the beans and pulses, as we discussed at the beginning of my first round. The Hensall Co-op ships about 40 containers a week, I believe—about 40 twenty-foot containers a week—of white beans and other crops. I know that through the years they've shipped different corn and wheat through there. Are there any opportunities for growers who would be listening today to take a look at what they're doing and kind of tailor their market to what the U.K. is needing right now?

[Doug Forsyth]

I wonder if I might turn to my colleague from Agriculture Canada.

[Aaron Fowler]

I think this agreement preserved important opportunities for producers of those commodities into the United Kingdom market following its exit from CETA. In many cases, those opportunities had been explored during the period that CETA has been provisionally applied.

It is a market that is relatively well known, I think, to our agri-food exporters. They work closely with our agricultural trade commissioners in the market to examine and pursue opportunities, and I would encourage them to continue to do so. I think this agreement maintains the access they need to be successful in the United Kingdom, and the government is there to help them along the way.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

I have maybe one last quick question. It's in regard to labour and certification recognition.

Obviously, Canada has a very strong nuclear energy sector, and I know the U.K. has many qualified nuclear workers as well. Many of them are actually living in my riding right now, I'm sure.

Is there any way that we can make work visas, etc., easier? Is there anything we can do in a new agreement whereby nuclear workers or other workers that are highly skilled would be able to have an easier way for an employer to bring them to Canada or vice versa?

[Doug Forsyth]

I think the new agreement would provide an opportunity to negotiate that. I would encourage folks in your riding and others to make sure that through the consultative process they make their views known.

I would like to clarify one thing. I might turn to my colleague in temporary entry/services to see if I missed anything on that answer.

[Christine Roy, Deputy Director, Services Trade Policy, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development]

Thank you.

This is my first intervention today, so I'm glad you asked a question relating to services. As Mr. Forsyth was saying, in the eventual negotiations with the U.K. we'll have the opportunity to certainly raise this issue with the U.K. on a reciprocal basis and seek to achieve greater market access for these very important and highly skilled professionals.

Yes, we'll have an opportunity in the context of the FTA, but in the meantime, if there are associations or people who want to participate in the consultations coming up and to express their views, that would be really appreciated. It would facilitate our work to make sure that these people are on the list of professionals for whom we will facilitate access in the future with a Canada-U.K. FTA.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Sarai, you have five minutes, please.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm going to take a little different turn. I think it's pretty conclusive here that we're protected under this interim agreement. What we had before in CETA is what we have now. We have 98% access, going towards 99% free trade access, so I think things are well.

I would like to know how can we increase export of products, particularly those farmed here in Surrey or in British Columbia, such as blueberries and cherries. These are very high value-added agricultural products that we can export to the U.K. under this agreement. How much are we exporting right now? Are there possibilities to increase those, either under this agreement or in general?

Perhaps Mr. Forsyth or someone else can answer that.

[Doug Forsyth]

I would say there are always opportunities to increase our Canadian exports.

I will turn to my colleague from AAFC on specifically blueberries and cherries.

[Aaron Fowler]

Madam Chair, I'm afraid I'll have to get back to the member with an answer to that question. I don't have with me the export statistics broken down by commodity. As I mentioned before, I think we exported about $550-million worth of agri-food products to the United Kingdom in 2019.

I'd be happy to provide more details on the product breakdown of those exports following this meeting.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Is there any initiative where Export Development Canada or other federal government agencies that promote trade would go to Canadian businesses after to highlight the importance of this agreement or to highlight the opportunities that perhaps Canadians have not taken advantage of before? I'm thinking particularly of procurement, perhaps, or other issues that were gained in CETA that maybe were not taken advantage of by Canadian companies.

Are there initiatives going on to increase that flow of trade or services from Canada?

[Doug Forsyth]

Absolutely. I guess there are two issues there. One is the trade promotion issue. In my department, Global Affairs Canada, we do have a team in place to promote not just the Canada-EU agreement, the Canada-U.K. agreement, the CPTPP...and elsewhere around the world in order to enhance the opportunities for Canadian companies to export. As I said earlier, it's especially for the small businesses that may not have all the information at hand, may not have the expertise and may not know the best way or route to export.

What we see is that a lot of our companies export to the U.S. It's not a surprise that around 80% of our exports go to the United States. It's the easiest market, right? But if we're going to diversify our trade and increase our exports, we'll have to reach beyond the United States market. That's why the government is negotiating the free trade agreements. We have CETA, Canada-U.K., CPTPP and others that we're working on. Once those negotiations are completed, we need to make sure that businesses, exporters and producers all know about them. We need to do a better job of promoting. As I said, we have a team from Global Affairs in place to do that.

Then we need to help them too, and that's our trade commissioner service. As I said, they work regionally across Canada but then in-market to help “pathfind” for companies, help identify opportunities and help make business connections.

So I thank you for the question and recognize that we need to do more to work with companies to make sure that the opportunities are available to them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

It will have to be a very short question, Mr. Sarai.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Really quickly, as I think you've already stated, there are no provisions in this agreement that prevent or could on an emergency basis lock out any vaccine delivery to Canada.

[Doug Forsyth]

That's correct. What we had said and what witnesses said earlier this week is as true for this agreement as it is for the other ones, CETA and WTO.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

We're protected for deliveries under this agreement.

[Doug Forsyth]

The agreement doesn't.... The trade agreement in itself neither protects nor stops the deliveries from happening. It provides for the duty-free flow of goods between the two countries. To the extent that vaccines are covered by that, yes, it's covered.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you.

We'll move on to Mrs. Gray for five minutes, please.