Agriculture committee  Sure thing.

Agriculture committee  On the WTO, obviously we've been very disappointed about not making more progress on that, but I think all of our trade officials, including Secretary Johanns, are saying that they still believe we can get an agreement. Now, that agreement could be six months, they just don't know, but they do consider it more “when” than “if”.

Agriculture committee  We would like to go about it as broadly as possible. Case by case, it obviously takes longer, but we are very much for harmonizing and integrating the industries on both sides of the border to the extent that we can. I think we are fully prepared to talk about ways to better do that or to do that in a quicker fashion.

Agriculture committee  I must say that I was not aware of this problem coming in, so I really would have to look into it in order to really give an answer to that. I'm sorry about that, but I just really don't know enough of the specifics to be able to answer your question.

Agriculture committee  I don't consider that to be a precedent for the sugar program. The way we administer that program, we buy a lot of sugar from outside the country, but it's very much controlled. In terms of challenges and so forth, our basic approach is that we're going to take the actions that we feel we are permitted to take under the WTO, under the international trade agreements.

Agriculture committee  I think most organizations are assertive in what they see as their rights, whether they're cattlemen or whatever, but it's always good if we can develop alliances between the industries. It has really helped us in the case of the BSE. The relationship between the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the Canadian Cattlemen's Association has been a close one and one of trust.

Agriculture committee  It's one we both know we've got to get a handle on very quickly because of the impact it can have. We both have a long history of dealing with potato-related concerns, diseases and so forth. The scientists on the U.S. side and on the Canadian side know each other. They actively talk to each other.

Agriculture committee  Right.

Agriculture committee  On your first question, water levels in the Great Lakes, that is completely out of my area of expertise. I know meetings are going on this week.

Agriculture committee  I have no ability to comment on that with any sort of U.S. government position or anything like that. Sorry about that. I hear things, but that's just like you hear things, so I don't really want to make comments based on that. On sugar beets, sugar, when you're talking about the sugar program in the United States, that is obviously one of our most sensitive products.

Agriculture committee  I really feel that if you look at our actions over the years, it's hard to come up with cases where we haven't eventually done the right thing from a science standpoint. I was thinking about that, and it's really that things take longer than maybe they should. Politics, of course, enter into the process of challenges, and so forth, and congressmen asking the administration why we're doing different things, but in my experience, the basic thrust of the direction in which we want to go, and in which we do go, is based on science, because that is the only rule that is going to kind of work in the end.

Agriculture committee  From a U.S. government standpoint, the agency that deals with that is the Food and Drug Administration, rather than the USDA. We have authority over meat, and so forth. It's just the way things are broken down. So it's the Food and Drug Administration that has actually made some of those indications to the industry in California that I think you're referring to.

Agriculture committee  That is something that's being actively done by the FDA. I don't know exactly what changes they are making to make sure this does not happen, but that is going to be actively done. We can't have this sort of thing with our vegetables, leafy vegetables particularly. So yes, it's something they are actively working on, and I don't know specifically what changes they are making or whatever, but I think there is a plan to go forward with this.

Agriculture committee  We would say the reverse, that Idaho got worked out when you had it in Quebec. I'm sure that's what our producers would say. We weren't getting anywhere...well, we were getting places, but it wasn't going as fast as we wanted on regionalization in Idaho. You wanted that in Quebec, and the minister said, “Do you realize how big the province of Quebec is?”

Agriculture committee  There are always two sides to the story.