Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak tonight about the situation with trade. My riding has a lot of agriculture products. The issue with a number of countries and the government's ability to work with trade is really a problem in my part of the country.
There is the issue with Italy and durum. A tremendous amount of durum is grown in my riding and farmers cannot trade our durum with Italy. It is the same with Vietnam.
There is also the issue with Saudi Arabia and barley. There is phenomenal barley in our part of the world and now we cannot trade our barley with Saudi Arabia.
Then there was the infamous trip to India. Now we have all these lentils that we are unable to trade with India because of the tariffs.
Last, there is China. What a scandal this is. First, it stopped canola imports with a couple of organizations revoking licences. However, it was not just the licences. China said that it was about crops. It has nothing to do with science; it is all political. Other companies stopped importing meal and canola oil. Then there are other things such as pork, which is not being unloaded. The boats are just sitting in the harbour.
The government has said that it will help with the canola situation by letting farmers borrow more money. There is a lot of canola sitting in bins in my riding. The canola has not moved this year. My riding has produced a lot more canola and the government has said that it will loan farmers more money, which will not solve the issue. Where are farmers going to put all the canola? All they are getting are more bins. The longer it sits there, the more volume there is and the price will drop. Eventually that canola will begin to be worthless.
Forty per cent of Canada's canola goes to China, and farmers are being told to diversify. They have diversified in many different countries, but the list that keeps nailing their crops and agriculture products is huge and it keeps creating problems in the agricultural sector. The challenges with trade are significant. They need to be resolved.
Farmers have had to make difficult decisions on what to plant. Those who are still left are wondering what they are going to do with their crops as they see the challenges with international trade. It is a real problem. This also leads back into the industries that support the agriculture sectors. I am talking about the machinery dealerships and the banks. Now that more credit has been extended, the banks are seeing more volume in loans.
International trade is a real problem. The Liberal government has messed up the agriculture sector significantly, and things are not being resolved.