Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in the House. I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Peace River—Westlock.
The focus of my speech today is going to be on what the difference is between free trade and fair trade. As members have heard today, Conservatives are not opposed to the United Kingdom's accession to the CPTPP. However, what we are frustrated with is that once again the Liberal government has backed down when Canadian business and industry need it the most.
We have heard a number of times from my Liberal colleagues today that they understand the unfair advantage that beef and pork producers in the United Kingdom and the European Union have over Canadian producers, and that they feel for them, yet once again, when the Liberals could have had some leverage to try to address the non-tariff trade barriers, the Liberal government has done absolutely nothing. In fact it has ignored the issue by trying to fast-track the accession of the United Kingdom into the CPTPP.
Let us be clear: There is some leverage. The United Kingdom cannot join the CPTPP without Canada on its side. A unanimous agreement must happen for a new member to join this trade agreement. To put our agriculture commodities, producers and farmers at risk as part of this agreement without resolving some long-standing trade issues is a failure of the current government.
In 2024, Canada exported approximately $100 billion of agriculture and agri-food products around the world. The sector employs 2.3 million Canadians and is $150 billion of Canadian GDP. To put that in perspective, that is more than the automotive and aerospace sectors combined. That is the impact of Canadian agriculture. However, while we are seeing success in some parts of the world, we are seeing a reversal of our success in the United Kingdom and the EU.
I want to highlight just how stark the contrast has been with respect to what is going on with Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Under the trade continuity agreement, the United Kingdom has imposed non-tariff trade barriers that have literally shut out Canadian beef and pork exports to the United Kingdom and to the European Union. We are not just raising rhetoric here; the facts speak for themselves.
I will start with beef as the first example. In 2024, Britain exported 42 million dollars' worth of beef from the United Kingdom into Canada. Last year, in the first half of 2025 alone, that number was already at $28 million. The amount of beef imported into Canada has increased year over year.
In contrast, in 2024, Canadian beef exported to the United Kingdom was just 25,000 dollars' worth. Last year, the amount of Canadian beef imported into the United Kingdom was zero. While the United Kingdom's imports continue to flood into Canada, there is no reciprocal or fair trade going the other direction. The Liberal government has been at the helm for more than 10 years and has done nothing to resolve this, as we have seen the discrepancy in those numbers continue to increase.
Pork is no different. In 2024, the United Kingdom exported nine million dollars' worth of United Kingdom pork to Canada. In the first half of last year, that number was already at $3.6 million. By contrast, Canadian pork exports to the United Kingdom in 2023 were zero. In 2025, we were at $120,000, pennies on the dollar compared to what is being brought into Canada.
I want to highlight that it is not any different when we look at the numbers in the European Union, where the trade imbalance is just as bad. In 2024, the European Union exported 92 million dollars' worth of beef to Canada, while Canadian beef exports to Europe fell by 40%, down to only $14 million, less than a quarter of what is being imported into Canada. Pork is much the same. From the numbers we have seen, the discrepancy continues to grow.
This is yet another failure by the Liberal government to stand up for Canadian producers. It is signing onto these agreements or shepherding the United Kingdom into the trans-Pacific partnership without addressing any of these long-standing issues. The United Kingdom will not recognize our carcass-washing practices here in Canada, which are of a higher standard than what is done in the United Kingdom and the European Union. It is simply a non-tariff trade barrier that the Liberal government refuses to address. The United Kingdom does not recognize our breeding and hormone practices and animal livestock protection practices here in Canada, even though the standards are recognized around the world.
Instead of addressing these non-tariff trade barriers, the Liberals are willing to hold the hand of the United Kingdom, ignore those problems and ensure it is joining the trans-Pacific partnership. We do not oppose the United Kingdom's being a member of that critical trade partnership. What we are concerned with or oppose is the fact that the Liberals are not addressing any of the long-standing non-tariff trade barriers before being a partner to the United Kingdom's joining that trade partnership.
The secondary issue is that the CPTPP has been an outstanding trade partnership, in that all of the decisions in the trade relationships have been science-based. We have not had any of the non-tariff trade barriers and shenanigans that we are seeing currently between Canada and the United Kingdom. However, if the United Kingdom joins the CPTPP, our concern is whether it would be bringing that philosophy with it to the agreement. Into what has been a very solid partnership among a number of countries, we would now perhaps welcome non-science-based decision-making and non-tariff trade barriers, for all intents and purposes throwing a wrench into a wheel that has been running very smoothly.
However, this is not the first time we have seen the current Liberal government fail when it comes to Canadian agriculture and trade. Only a few years ago, for example, we had a deadline with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the World Organisation for Animal Health for Canada to get negligible risk status for BSE. I was at a conference with ranchers from across Canada and members of CFIA when CFIA said it forgot about the deadline, forgot to apply for negligible risk status and that it would have to wait until the next year. It made it sound like just “Sorry about that. The government forgot.” That cost Canadian ranchers tens of millions of dollars in lost market access. It took us more than 20 years to regain that access after the BSE outbreak.
We have also seen that when the Liberal government has said now and again that it will address the specified risk material, SRMs, which is once again an additional step we have to do in Canada. It costs our producers about $60 a head to deal with SRMs. The United States does not have to do it, and it puts our producers at a competitive disadvantage. Time and again the Liberal government says it is going to address the SRMs. Time and again it has failed to do so, and that irritant is still in place.
Every single time Canadian producers need the Liberal government the most, it is nowhere to be found, and now, when we need to be focused on research and development and sanitary and phytosanitary to push our standards around the world, the Liberal government's response is to close seven research centres across Canada. Two of them, in Lacombe, Alberta, and in Nappan, Nova Scotia, focus on the beef industry and the things we do here in Canada that we need to convince the rest of the world to meet or exceed their standards.
Last, I would be remiss if I did not mention the other issue that the Liberal government did not address, and that is British pensioners' not seeing their pensions indexed to inflation, which happens in the United States. Our cousin in the United Kingdom is not allowing the same rights to 100,000 Canadians who are suffering with that indignity here in Canada, including my wee mother-in-law from Scotland, who is also not seeing her pension indexed. I know she would like to be treated just like British expats right around the world.