Thank you for the opportunity to speak about ways for Canada to maximize opportunities in the Indo-Pacific region. CAFTA is the voice of Canadian agri-food exporters. It represents the 90% of farmers in Canada who depend on trade, and those growing the economy through better access to international markets for beef, pork, wheat, grains, oilseeds, canola, sugar, malt, pulses and processed food products.
Today, I'll be sharing three main points.
First, we need to diversify in the region. Economic resiliency is a growing concern around the world. Canada's agri-food system faced great pressures and uncertainty throughout the pandemic. An increase in protectionism continues to disrupt rules-based trade for Canadian agri-food exporters. The best way to manage risk in this uncertainty is to diversify and expand our trade and investment footprint abroad. Opening markets and upholding the rules-based trading system are perhaps the most important things the government can do to protect Canada's agri-food sector and support its critical role in the economy.
CAFTA supports efforts to enhance and improve access to large, high-value markets in the U.S., the U.K. and the EU. CAFTA members also have their eyes set on the vast and fast-growing region of the Indo-Pacific. This is where most of the global growth is expected to be over the next several decades. In this region, the top priority is the ASEAN. We support the bilateral talks with Indonesia and believe they serve as a gateway to the ASEAN region. As a market of 643 million people with a growing middle class, this region provides the opportunity to boost our competitiveness and a framework to diversify in countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, in particular.
As a bloc, ASEAN has five FTAs, including some with our competitors. With ASEAN, Canada's list of Asia-Pacific countries included in our FTAs would grow from four—South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Singapore—to 10 with Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines, and to 12 when Malaysia and Brunei ratify the CPTPP. The CPTPP has been a largely beneficial agreement for agri-food, and CAFTA supports ongoing accession talks with economies that can meet its standards. CAFTA also welcomes renewed trade engagement with India while recognizing this complex trade relationship must be handled with a constructive yet cautious approach.
In general, Canada should seek to ensure that trade negotiations recognize the importance of effective implementation. This is so negotiated outcomes can translate into real growth opportunities for businesses. There are many examples of trading partners not abiding by commitments. This means three things in particular: tariff liberalization; rules of origin and cumulation provisions that support Canadian usage of supply chains; and commitments to build a transparent, stable and predictable trading platform.
Second, we need to address non-tariff barriers. We have shared before with this committee how non-tariff barriers prevent Canadian exporters from achieving export gains in free trade agreements, and we offer the following four suggestions:
One, we need to start early in negotiations and clarify the regulatory requirements for our sectors. This means co-operation between industry and government—the regulatory and policy staff at home and abroad.
Two, within FTAs, there should be mechanisms for co-operation among trading partners on regulatory standards and approval processes. Working groups need to be established early and should include ways to elevate issues to higher levels if no resolution is found in a timely manner.
Three, the human resource requirements of our regulatory, policy and advocacy agencies increase with each new trade agreement given differences among countries and the ever-increasing expectations placed on food producers around the world. Sufficient and stable investment in staffing and expertise among our regulatory, policy and diplomatic personnel is essential to take advantage of trade agreements.
Four, to maximize FTAs, we should also learn from existing deals and conduct a review of Canada’s major free trade agreements to make sure that negotiated outcomes turn into commercial opportunities. As you know, while the CETA holds huge potential for Canadian agri-food, Europe is slow to remove non-tariff barriers.
My third and last point is the need to improve advocacy capacity and industry-government collaboration. While the importance of regular effective industry-government collaboration should be obvious to both sides, it's not always the case at home and abroad.
There's an overall need to enhance Canada's advocacy capacity so that officials are equipped with the tools and information to promote the science and sustainability behind Canada's world-class agri-food sector, and can defend a rules-based and science-based trading system. This is key to strengthening Canada's diversification in the Indo-Pacific region.
Overall, we all need to do a better job communicating with one another as industry and government, but also with our trading partners to enhance dialogues, encourage greater transparency, and foster more accountability, so we can tackle issues before they become problems. This is particularly true after two years of virtual discussions, an erosion of trust, a lack of respect of trade rules around the world and massive ongoing shifts in the global trading environment.