We at the Meat Council are the most pro-free trade folks you'll find, but as you folks around the committee table know, any free trade agreement we sign—or most of them we sign—have TRQs, or they have some elements to them that aren't about free and unfettered access. That's what the Brazilians and Argentinians are asking for—full, unfettered access to Canada. That would absolutely have a major impact on the beef sector in Canada.
There are definitely concerns we have heard from our American counterparts about the backdoor treatment for imports through Canada into the United States. I can tell you that the beef processing sector and ranchers in the U.S. are very sensitive to imports coming in from places like Brazil and Argentina. We've seen that happen over the past few months when Trump had to backtrack on some of the moves we made.
The last piece I'll note, which I haven't mentioned yet, is that we also need to ensure that our SPS—our sanitary and phytosanitary—and inspection systems are equivalent to those of the folks in Mercosur. I would note to the committee that our last audits of the establishments in the Mercosur countries were in 2018 in Brazil and in 2015 in Argentina. We need to ensure that our CFIA inspectors are getting out there and inspecting establishments that are currently exporting to Canada to ensure that they are at the same level as our food standards.