moved:
That this Committee take note of supply management.
Mr. Chair, I appreciate the opportunity to rise in debate tonight in the House on the very important issue of supply management in Canada. Supply management, as I am sure the House is aware, is an important part of our agricultural industry. It represents 20% of our farm cash receipts nationally. In the province of Quebec it represents almost 40% of farm cash receipts. In fact, there are over 22,000 supply managed producers here in Canada, a very important part of the agricultural industry in Canada.
Let me say one thing at the beginning that I think is absolutely essential to make clear. The Government of Canada, the Liberal Party, supports supply management. In my view, it is clearly a system that works. It is one that provides consumers with a quality product, it provides an assurance of supply, and it allows for producers to get a reasonable return from the marketplace.
Over the years that support of supply management by the Liberal Party, by the government, has been a real support, one that has been there from the very beginning. In fact, we were there as a party when supply management was first developed and put into place, and that support has continued over the years.
We have defended supply management through a number of international negotiations. As recently as last July, when we were in Geneva and negotiated a framework agreement with our other WTO partners, we worked to achieve all of Canada's trade objectives, but at the same time we made sure we had a framework agreement that would allow Canadian producers to do what Canadian producers should have the right to do, and that is to choose the domestic marketing system they want.
I have met on a number of occasions since that time with representatives from countries in various forums across the world, and in all of those I have taken the opportunity to point out that Canada, in working to achieve its objectives in the WTO negotiations, was determined to do so in a way that allowed Canadian producers to choose their domestic marketing regimes.
We have worked hard with the dairy industry on a number of issues. We have dealt with it on labelling issues and we intend to deal with it on a series of other issues, including standards. As I mentioned, we are committed to achieving a WTO agreement that respects and allows for the continuation of supply management.
I know there are some issues around the WTO negotiations and other issues in terms of how to approach the current situation. There have been suggestions made by many, including the Dairy Farmers of Canada. One of them is that we should proceed with an article XXVIII action immediately.
Let me make something clear. I am not ruling out taking an article XXVIII action, but I want to make one thing absolutely certain. My bottom-line objective, what I am trying to achieve, is to ensure that the outcome of the WTO negotiations is a favourable one in respect of maintaining and enhancing the supply managed industries here in Canada. I want to make sure that the steps and the approach I take lend themselves to achieving that objective. In my view, taking an article XXVIII action at this particular time does not assist in achieving that goal.
I should point out that by choosing not to do it at this moment in no way precludes the opportunity to use it at any point in time as we move down the road. It is our right to use article XXVIII, and we are determined to provide border protection for our supply managed industries. I understand as well that if we take an action next month or the month after or the month after that, there can potentially be some cost to the industry in delaying it for a period of time. But that needs to be clearly weighed against what cost there would be if we impair our ability to achieve our objectives under the WTO.
The issue of an article XXVIII is not one of substance. It is not one of trying to achieve what it is we want to achieve, and that is to have a strong supply managed system in this country. It is one of strategy. It is about the best strategic approach to take. It is important that we work on this issue on an ongoing basis.
To that end, we now have the agreement of the Canada Border Services Agency that it will provide to us on a monthly basis the actual imports that are taking place in those products the DFC has identified.
It is also my intent, and I have made this clear to the industry, that we will sit down on a monthly basis to examine exactly what is taking place in terms of imports on those particular products so that we can evaluate exactly what kind of action we should be taking on an ongoing basis.
Clearly, it is not something we are simply saying no to, but it is something we are saying we need to balance the appropriate time to take such action, and if we achieve what it is we want to achieve, which is the successful outcome of the WTO negotiations, then we may not need to use that tool whatsoever.
I have talked quite a bit about the WTO negotiations. Let us be clear. Supply management in and of itself is not something that is the subject of those negotiations. What is, is a number of issues within those negotiations that can have an impact on supply management.
From Canada's perspective, we are trying to achieve a number of important objectives and goals of the WTO. We want to see the elimination of export subsidies. We want to see the reduction of domestic supports. We do in fact want to see increased market access--a real increase of market access. But we also want to make sure that it is done in a way that allows Canadian producers, as I mentioned earlier, to make their choices about the type of domestic marketing system they want to have. So we need to deal with these issues.
Each one of these pillars in the WTO negotiations has a potential impact on supply management, whether it deals with export subsidies, which has an impact on our ability to sell our products abroad, or whether it deals with domestic supports. There are issues with domestic supports in terms of our administered pricing. Although that does not represent a cash outlay for the government, the amount does count against the total AMS, the total amount of domestic supports we are able to provide.
There are discussions that are taking place in terms of product-specific caps and the basis upon which those caps would be established, and that has the potential to impact in terms of supply management.
In market access there is a whole series of issues. It has to do with the whole issue of tariffs, with our over-quota tariffs, with the expansion of our quotas. Canada's position has been very clear; that is, as a government, as a country, we need to have the flexibility to achieve market access in a way that makes the best sense for us in Canada. That is an argument that we have taken forward in the WTO. It is an argument that I make on an ongoing basis with our trading partners. It is one that we believe is a sound approach for us to take. So there are critical issues for supply management that are at stake in these WTO negotiations.
I should mention that one of the things we have been determined to do, and that we continue to do, is to engage fully the industry in respect of our WTO negotiations. That is something that is very different between ourselves and other countries. When we go and negotiate, we are not there alone; the government is not there by itself. It is there with the industry. It is there with the supply-managed industries. It is there with other Canadian industries. We work with them, as well as consulting with members of the opposition, which we did when we were in Geneva last year, and with the provinces to achieve our objectives.
I want there to be no illusion. There are significant challenges ahead that we need to address and that we need to meet. But we have dealt with this before. We have faced those challenges before, we have been successful in meeting them in the past, and we are determined to be successful in meeting them in the future.