Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me state that when it comes to agriculture, our Conservative government puts farmers first in everything that we do.
With respect to country of origin labelling, our government is standing up to the U.S. on this harmful legislation and is formally challenging the COOL legislation at the World Trade Organization. Thanks to our efforts a panel was established by the WTO dispute settlement body on November 19, 2009. We have taken action to defend the interests of Canada's cattle and hog producers and we are confident that we will win our challenge.
The request for a special WTO panel is the most recent step in a lengthy dispute between the Government of Canada and the United States. In early December 2008, we launched the dispute resolution process at the WTO by asking for official consultations with the United States, thus indicating our determination to defend Canadian producers.
The ministers of International Trade and Agriculture are both actively engaged in challenging the country of origin labelling legislation and have shared Canada's concerns with their U.S. counterparts at every opportunity.
The Prime Minister has also made it very clear to the U.S. all along that if the discriminatory aspects of COOL are not removed, we would take this issue to the WTO.
With respect to the agriculture committee, I took the initiative, with the support of my Conservative colleagues, to move a motion for the committee to travel to the U.S. in order to meet with congressmen, senators and industry groups to defend our farmers.
Regrettably, the member for Malpeque and his Liberal Party are completely out of touch with Canada's farmers and would in fact have us abandon this challenge. Bob Russell, a former Liberal candidate for Edmonton—St. Albert and Liberal of the year in 2007 said that COOL appears to be an idea whose time has come and that our producers should meet this demand. That is what the Liberal of the year said in 2007. That is not the view of our Conservative government.
It is time the Liberals got onside with farmers and supported our efforts in challenging COOL.