Madam Chair, I know the member for Yorkton—Melville is very much involved with farmers in his riding. I have had the opportunity to attend some of the round tables he has held in Yorkton over the years and they are always great fountains of information.
Certainly there is concern. He said that the last time farmers had access to good programming was under John Diefenbaker. That speaks to the age of farmers out there. It underscores that line.
We are certainly working hard to reinvigorate markets. The United States is our major trading partner. It is the closest one to us and there has been a free flow of information and goods back and forth, which has been especially underscored since NAFTA. That certainly expedited a great deal of income for farmers with that new free trade agreement.
We have to be vigilant. We have to make sure that the free trade is also fair trade, that the rules are embraced and followed. We continue to work with our American counterparts regardless of what political side they are on. I have developed a good relationship with my colleague, Tom Vilsack, the new secretary of agriculture. I know my colleague, the Minister of International Trade, has that same good camaraderie and working relationship with Ron Kirk, the secretary of trade.
We continue to work with them on how to get past this country of origin labelling situation in which they have found themselves. We continue to work with them on ways forward. We put one challenge in place that gave us the rule that we needed changed. The final rule came out in the script that we wanted it. Then the new administration added a little more voluntary and a little more mandatory, which is creating a lot of frustration. We have initiated the second challenge on that one and we will work with our American allies on that.
At the same time that we are working to reinvigorate that trade, we are opening new trade corridors around the world. Of course, we all look with envy at the Pacific Rim and the great job that is done by some countries, like Australia and so on. We have been out of that picture for a number of years. For the last year and a half to two years we have begun to reinvigorate those channels, pulse crops in India, pulse crops in Morocco. There is a lot more grain going into Saudi Arabia than ever we have seen before as it steps back from self-sufficiency and buys the good quality durum wheat from Canada.
We are also beginning discussions with the EU. Of course, with 300 million people over there, it is a tremendous opportunity for Canadian producers. I know they look to us to lead the challenge on that, to level the playing field so they can go industry to industry and make the good deals to further the farm gate.