International Trade Committee on March 10th, 2026

[René Roy]

That's an important point to bring to the debate. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency can check certain health aspects in particular, but animal welfare isn't examined in the same way. In Canada, we have established rules that increase our production costs, both in terms of transportation and production itself, such as rules for group sow farming. They don't have those rules in Brazil, so we couldn't have equivalent production costs. Brazilians would come into our market without having to impose on themselves the same animal welfare rules that Canadian consumers and citizens have asked us to follow.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Earlier, if I'm not mistaken, you said that 70% of production was exported. Do you have any interest in Mercosur opportunities?

[René Roy]

In other circumstances, we came to testify on pork trade with the European Union. We propose that we work on current trade to ensure that it's successful and put in place properly. No, right now, we don't see any opening for a reciprocal market: They will have access to our markets, but we won't have access to theirs.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I imagine you're referring to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Union. Earlier, you said that there were non-tariff barriers and that you weren't able to sell products in Europe. So what you're saying is that we should settle current matters before looking at others.

[René Roy]

Yes, that's what we should do.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Have you seen any non-tariff barriers in the Brazilian regions? Are there other things we haven't seen in this negotiation that could help us?

[René Roy]

It's going to be very difficult, given the standards there, to have any kind of access. We've heard from colleagues in agriculture. We've spoken with other colleagues in the agricultural field, particularly in crop production. We urge the committee to approach them. There's not a lot of appetite for that market. There are opportunities in other markets, particularly Southeast Asia, for animal production. However, in this market, we don't see any opportunities.

[Jason Groleau, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I have a lot of discussions with people in agriculture. My family is in that. Farmers don't seem to be happy with the latest negotiations, whether in pork or beef production, or in a host of other areas.

Is that the case? Are you seeing the same thing as me? There's a lack of finesse in negotiating the little details. My question is simple. Does the government ask you for advice? You are the experts, the officials are not. Do they seek your advice?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Give a short answer, please.

[Stephen Heckbert, President and Chief Executive Director, Canadian Pork Council]

I'll do it in English, just in case the translation system has fallen apart.

Monsieur Groleau, yes, they ask our advice. The challenge is—and I mean this with all the love in my heart—that I think Canadians are far too optimistic sometimes when we enter into these trade negotiations. We take people at their word without ensuring that the document covers the worst-case scenario if we can't trust them.

I'd like to see us have a bit more of a solid base of ability to react and to retaliate in some cases, and we just don't have that in most of our trade agreements.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you.

Mr. Fonseca, you have the floor.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

This trade agreement looking at Canada and Mercosur, like other agreements—CPTPP, CETA or what we did with Indonesia.... These are really to look at diversifying our trade, making Canada much more resilient and not dependent on one particular market.

I know that when we've had stakeholders like you—and thank you very much for your testimony—it's been about levelling the playing field, always levelling the playing field. We know we can compete, but we just need a level playing field.

We do have a large sector here in terms of being leaders in the mining sector. I know that is also part of Mercosur. They're also leaders in the mining sector. We just had PDAC a little over a week ago, one of the largest conferences, which happened in Toronto. There were 130 countries and 26,000 to 27,000 participants.

I want to go to Mr. Greer and Ms. Saad. I don't know if you were at PDAC, but I want to know what you were hearing. Some of the things I heard were in regard to investment protection, regulatory co-operation and potential trade agreements, everything we've been talking about today that we would like to see. I'd like to hear your take on that, looking at the mining sector, and then we could talk about some of the other sectors.

Go ahead, Mr. Greer.

[Ryan Greer]

I wasn't at PDAC, but I was in regular conversation with many of our mining members.

Mining is certainly one huge opportunity for Canada, not just today but also in the decades ahead, for some fairly obvious reasons. We have a lot of what the world wants, and that's not just what's in the ground. With our expertise at a firm level and at a technology level, we are the best of the best. There are certainly some opportunities, as I cited, where we can leverage that in the context of a Mercosur agreement around mining, machinery and equipment in some of those markets.

However, it all comes down to the environment at home, and that would be true for mining as well. We need to get to a stage where we are not waiting decades to bring projects to life. Where we sit in the current geopolitical environment and where the demand is, as well as where we can use some of those things as leverage, demand that we get even faster and more expeditious, while still following the right rules and processes, and the safety and environmental procedures.

We have to show the world that we have access to what's in the ground and that we're willing to leverage all of our other strengths to bring it to global markets, whether they be under existing agreements, under new agreements or even within the context of our relationship with the U.S. There is a tremendous focus on critical minerals in the short term and the medium term.

We have lots to be proud of, but I think there's lots of work ahead for us to leverage all those strengths to the benefit of Canadians.

[Peter Fonseca, Liberal, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Greer.

Ms. Saad.

[Paola Saad]

I've been doing PDAC for the last 27 years and working a lot with the delegations from Brazil. We have dozens of Canadian companies working in mining in Brazil. That's where we have a huge success. Brazilian mining companies are listed on the TSX. TSX has been doing a great job of listing those companies, bringing those funds to Canada and opening those markets in Canada. There is good income going to Brazil.

Again, we need to align the standards and simplify the tax structures in Brazil. It's an important demand. The red tape in Brazil is huge in the licensing practices and the regulatory procedures. I think regulatory co-operation between the two countries is of utmost importance in negotiating the free trade agreement with Mercosur.

The way exports come to Brazil is sometimes a huge barrier for Canadian companies. By the time their product gets to Brazil, it's double the price, because there are 17 different layers of taxation compounded. When speaking to Brazil regarding Mercosur, I think it would be very important to try to reduce those layers, simplify the taxation system and simplify the opening of a foreign company and the flow of money back and forth.

I think it's important not only for the mining companies but also for investments in general. There's a huge investment—almost $13 billion—going back and forth between Brazil and Canada. It's about giving these companies the opportunity to thrive without the constraints of red tape, bureaucracy and regulatory practices. Aligning those is one of the major elements we should be looking at now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Thank you to our witnesses for the valuable testimony. This is the beginning of a study that looks like it's going to be very interesting.

Thank you to the members.

The meeting is adjourned.