Yes, Mr. Speaker, absolutely. I mentioned our top priorities in my speech.
But obviously there are others. This comes under rural development and agricultural development. Quebec farmers and Canadian farmers must be able to benefit from a level of subsidies that will allow them to compete with their international counterparts.
That being said, I believe that we must not be afraid of the United States. Take this type of policy passed by congress. This is not the first time that this has happened. Since the early 1970s, Americans have been quick to provide ad hoc subsidies to help their farmers export in the international markets and practice unfair competition. I think this needs to be resolved through the World Trade Organization or by the trilateral panels set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
We need to stop what is known as top loading, when one government provides on dollar more in export subsidies and then another national government has to intervene to compete with the other's subsidies. We need to put an end to this.
We thought that, after 1994 with the new agreement, the 9th GATT agreement, which created the World Trade Organization, we had attained the goal of reining in the funding process and categorizing funding into those which are not trade distorting and are needed by agriculture, and those which constitute unfair competition.
I do not believe we have managed to do so yet. So, yes, that is a priority. The matter of unfair competition must, however, be settled in the international arena.