Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon, and thank you for granting CropLife Canada this opportunity to participate in your study on the impact of non-tariff barriers on existing and potential international trade agreements. My name is Greg Kolz and I am vice-president of government affairs at CropLife Canada. Joining me today is my colleague Émilie Bergeron, vice-president of chemistry.
CropLife Canada is a national trade association that represents the manufacturers, developers and distributors of pesticides and plant-breeding innovations. Our organization’s primary focus is on providing tools to help farmers be more productive and sustainable.
As you may be aware, Canada is the fifth-largest agricultural exporter globally. We produce some of the highest-quality and most sought-after products in the world. Global food insecurity continues to be an enormous challenge, and we believe Canada is and can be part of the solution. The world needs the food and feed that Canadian farmers produce. In turn, Canadian growers need predictable, transparent and science-based trade rules to get our products to market.
Unfortunately, despite the multiple free trade agreements to which Canada belongs, non-tariff barriers continue to impact Canadian producers. Whether it’s the lack of predictability and timeliness for the approval of biotechnology crops in export markets, or the adoption of non-scientifically driven policies on pesticides, many of these challenges have already been brought to the attention of this committee by our colleagues from other agricultural groups.
We share the view that all future free trade agreements signed by Canada must include provisions on agricultural biotechnology, as do the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, and contain text to address trade issues related to differences in pesticide regulations.
Today, we would like to discuss with you a new non-tariff barrier that could set a dangerous precedent and undermine the entire global agricultural trading system.
I will ask Ms. Bergeron to explain this issue in more detail.