Yes, as we will see later on, it is all true. We see it every day. However, what we see mostly is friends and neighbours losing income. No one likes to hear that, for an animal that used to sell for $1,000, producers are only paid around $49.52 these days, once the transportation fees and everything else have been taken in. No one can be happy in a situation like this. We will only be pleased once the border is completely reopened.
I went to Taiwan a few months ago. This is a topic that I raised in the course of my visit in order to have this border reopened as well. Indeed, Taiwan is a country that used to import Canadian beef, and it is our market that had the highest growth rate. It was not our most important market, that being the United States of course, but it was a sector that was gaining in importance at the time of the closing of the border. It has not been reopened yet.
We have just heard interesting news, not long ago, about Hong Kong. I know that some parliamentarians will be going to Taiwan soon. I hope that the next delegation will raise this issue again and that Canadian interests will continue to be defended and new markets found. We all share this responsibility.
Today, the Prime Minister was reminding us in the House that he has personally asked our embassy in Washington to open an office to enable Canadian parliamentarians to have exchanges with their American counterparts. We must all use that forum to get across to members of the American Congress, in particular those representing urban ridings, that they are being had. This matter is not all that amusing for the United States either.
Like most of us, I have relatives in the United States, who pay ridiculously high prices for their beef. However, they do not really know why. They do not really know that their border with Canada has been closed. This measure may have been justified at the beginning, on a temporary basis, but not in the long run. Keeping the border closed benefits a small group in the United States, in particular the so-called R-CALF USA, and others. They have put up obstacles every time Canada has tried to have the border with the United States reopened.
This week we had the visit of the President of the United States of America. I for one was pleased to hear the President insist that he would do some of the things required to reopen the border. We know that executive order does not open the border tomorrow, but as we head toward that date, as we send a positive message and together we try to open other borders, the price, particularly for beef cattle, which has started to rise, we hope will continue to improve.
In the matter of cull cows, it is obviously quite different because cull cows are not crossing the border at all, whereas for cut meats, particularly of younger product, the border has at least started to open up. I want to work with my colleagues to make this better.
I want to say that I am glad the minister is here to listen to what all of us have to say. I hope we spend the rest of the day giving the minister advice on how to make his programs better, to weather this storm and to give a better life to Canadians living in rural areas.