Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for the invitation and thank you to the committee members for your work on this issue.
My name is René Roy. I am the chair of the Canadian Pork Council and am also a pork farmer. Joining me today is our executive director, Stephen Heckbert.
The Canadian Pork Council is the voice for Canada's almost 8,000 pork farmers. Our industry is responsible for almost $5 billion in annual exports to more than 75 markets around the world. Indeed, pork exports represent almost 1% of Canada's total exports. We are free traders, and free trade is good for our industry and for our businesses.
So why are we here and why are we opposed to the UK's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, with the terms we have negotiated thus far? We are here today to talk about fairness, about a level playing field that is based on rules-based trade. Unfortunately, we're not sure all our global trading partners respect us very much when it comes to non-tariff trade barriers.
For example, the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, has given us no access to the European market, even though European countries can export meat freely into Canada. The European Union will say their animal welfare provisions are better, or that their rules around certain processes improve food safety, but, in short, the European Union is better at non-tariff trade barriers.
When we grant access to our market and get no access in return, that is unfair to our producers, to their families and to our communities in rural Canada.
We can appreciate that international agreements are difficult to negotiate and that industries may not be winners under any individual deal, but when our animal welfare standards are called into question in the U.K. media, we expect our government to defend us, since these standards are Canada's standards.
Being a farmer is hard work. Being a farm family that can't ship its products to a market that can ship to ours makes it feel like free trade is a punishment.
Our dealings with the minister's office have been good. We have appreciated their communication, but here is the core of our point: Non-tariff trade barriers are not supposed to be intentional. If we do not defend ourselves, our trading partner will continue to disrespect us as a country.
What are we asking for? When the United States imposed an unfair tariff on our steel industry, we responded with a targeted set of retaliatory tariffs. It worked. Just reminding the countries that impose unfair rules on our export that we have some ideas of barriers we could use in response could help reduce these behaviours. As a country, we sometimes must be willing to raise the tone to be respected.
We would also like to have International Trade or Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada keep a list of countries that have trade agreements with us yet import surprisingly few of our agricultural products.
Canada's farmers are free traders, for the most part, but we need trade deals that are fair and equitable, otherwise we're being punished for wanting to feed the world.
Ladies and gentlemen, the world needs your help to access Canada's agricultural products. We, the pork producers of Canada, will work with you to support this noble cause.
Thank you.