International Trade Committee on March 9th, 2023

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Thank you.

Aren't you worried that the Americans will change their labelling rules?

We've heard a lot about that, but we haven't heard much from the Minister of Agriculture about it.

I imagine that would affect you directly.

[Dennis Laycraft]

Yes, I'm sure everyone's aware that we actually took the U.S. to the WTO and won on a case like that. There's some new product of U.S.A.... There's a proposed rule about to come forward. I will say we have very strong allies in the United States who are going to oppose that rule. There are two groups. There are those who recognize the benefits of the market integration, and then those who are taking a more protectionist approach—and giving more fuel to the protectionist approach is not going to help.

[Richard Lehoux, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I agree with you. It doesn't help anyone, but it won't stop other countries from taking that approach.

That's why we should protect ourselves before protecting others.

I'm not saying we should stop exporting to other markets, but we need to always keep in mind the fact that any country could impose a non-tariff barrier tomorrow and we would be very limited in our ability to respond.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

Answer very quickly.

[Dennis Laycraft]

I'll use a different example. When we first began negotiations with Japan, what was their most sensitive product? It was beef. Over time, what actually happened was that they came to realize that Wagyu beef had a special place in the world. They were able to export and still maintain a very viable sector, but now they've become our second-largest export market. We were able to demonstrate that there was a mutual benefit to trade, and if it had just been strict protectionism, we would have never achieved that opportunity.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

Unfortunately, that's the end, Richard.

We'll turn to Mr. Drouin for the last question today for five minutes.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My turn is always after the honourable member's. I have the utmost respect for him, but once again, there's something I need to correct.

The Minister of Agriculture, along with the Minister of International Trade, came out very strongly on the voluntary labelling issue, and I encourage people to read the news release the ministers put out on March 7 if they haven't had a chance yet.

Mr. Lehoux obviously hasn't had a chance to read the news release, so I encourage him to do so. I won't read it, because I know he has resources and he'll be able to find it.

The ministers' position was loud and clear in the news release: Canada will always protect its meat sector.

To the Cattle Association, I know exports are extremely important and that you guys have done a tremendous job of protecting the environment and the grasslands. Protecting the grasslands is something you have championed for years and years, and that story's not being told enough. I tell it as much as I can. I'm not attacking media, but it's not being told enough by our mainstream media. They need to tell this story. We have a great environmental story to tell. The dairy farmers are doing the same thing, and everyone's doing their part.

We often talk about net zero in terms of consumers and export opportunities, and I think your sector is playing a major role. What do you think the export opportunities are? How does that tie into our Indo-Pacific strategy, especially related to agriculture?

[Dennis Laycraft]

Yes, we're excited about the Indo-Pacific opportunities. I think it's all of Canadian agriculture. We talk about beef and we talk about dairy, but the crop sector is doing some of the best work in the world too. I always like to say that the world needs more Canada. As we start to work and see the growth in the middle income in the Indo-Pacific area, one of the first things they increase is the quality of protein they consume. That has happened in every developing market around the world.

We see not only a great opportunity there, but also we have a tremendous environmental story to tell. I was really pleased to see the Government of Canada release their grasslands advertisement this past week. Unlike other parts of the world, that's our most endangered ecosystem. How do we protect grasslands? As we work together on that, I think everybody in Canadian agriculture is pretty proud of the role we're playing in developing some of the most sustainable agri-food products in the world. I truly believe, over the long term, that is going to be well-received around the world, and that's going to improve demand for Canadian agri-food products.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Absolutely, and I look forward to continuing to work with your sector and with other farmers.

My next question goes to the good folks at CAFTA.

I know that, obviously, you represent members who are export-oriented. I won't talk about cattle this time, but I'll go to grains. I wonder if you can speak specifically to grains and perhaps what the Indo-Pacific strategy can do. What do you look forward to within that particular strategy, and how can we increase our exports in that particular region?

[Greg Northey]

The Indo-Pacific is incredibly important for the same reasons Dennis outlined. One of the biggest things for us in that region is to present to all of those potential markets, the developing markets, how to model behaviour around dealing with trade: making sure it's predictable, making sure there are no irritants and making sure it's open and free.

One of the things we absolutely need, as we move into those markets, is to ensure that what we're modelling in Bill C-282, particularly around how to protect a sector through legislation, will not be damaging for us as we try to achieve our objectives in that region. If we're taking things off the table, and it doesn't matter what sector it is or what protection of the sector we're doing, it means we will never be able to have commercially viable deals with any country. In fact, we won't be able to speak to countries around their regulatory system about anything, because they will simply say to us, “Well, you're protecting a sector. We're going to do it, but we're going to do it in a different way with a non-tariff trade barrier or some kind of SPS issue.”

We won't have the standing, as Canada, if we're demonstrating a behaviour where we're legislation a protection for a sector, a region or any kind of issue that we deem should be protected.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

We need to understand that Canada is a 38.5-million person market versus 338 million down south, versus billions of people in the Asia-Pacific and 500 million people in Europe. The understanding is that we are a major player, and we already export over 50% of our agricultural products. We do have a great future. I know that we're working extremely hard to unclog, if I can say, transportation issues. I don't think we have transportation representatives at this table right now, but I know this is an issue we're working on in collaboration with your sector.

I'm going to finish on a high note. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for representing your members, including all the sectors that CAFTA represents and those in cattle. I've spoken to many of you before.

Thank you to the dairy producers.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

That brings us to the end of our meeting.

I want to thank all our witnesses today. Thank you for your evidence. Also, if you ever have additional evidence you want to submit to the committee other than what you testified to here today or documents you've submitted, please do that.

With that, I wish everyone a good Thursday evening.

The meeting is adjourned.