Mr. Speaker, I would be glad to answer the member's question.
I base this on three main points. The first point has been well made by the lawyer representing the dairy farmers of Canada in their push to keep American products out of the market. They of course are saying that GATT takes precedence over NAFTA with regard to supply management. The lawyer who is representing the Dairy Farmers of Canada has said: "Hey, guys, you had better be careful here. The Americans have a very good case that in fact NAFTA has precedence over GATT."
As this member will well know, this lawyer-who represents the Dairy Farmers of Canada, not the Americans-has said that this is a real concern and that we had better be prepared for the decision going in favour of NAFTA having precedence over GATT. If this happens then supply management as we know it is in jeopardy immediately.
The next major thing that threatens supply management as we know it is the NAFTA negotiations around letting Chile into the NAFTA family. Our Prime Minister and the President of the United States have said that within four years Chile will be part of the NAFTA family. When that happens, and as those negotiations take place, I believe Americans will demand that Canadian markets be opened up to their products in the supply-managed area. That is the second very real threat to supply management.
The third threat is the new GATT negotiations, which will take place starting in the year 2000. I believe those new negotiations will in fact lead to a rapid deceleration in tariffs protecting the supply-managed industry.
I do not like saying these things to supply-managed farmers because I know this is going to present a great difficulty and a real challenge for them, but I am not going to hide it. I am going to be very honest and open and say: "I believe this is what is going to happen. Take any time you have to prepare yourselves for this major change."