International Trade committee  Well, we're certainly continuing to talk with our EU counterparts, whom of course we know very well from our negotiations, but they are not at the table. We are keeping in touch with them, but they are not actively engaged in any of the discussions between Canada and the U.K. on these issues.

International Trade committee  I will take that question, Madam Chair. The Ottawa Group has been a particularly valuable vehicle for Canada to have influence in discussions around the WTO. I think what we have seen is that, when we look around the various conversations taking place at the WTO, the only real mechanism for trying to advance issues is the Ottawa Group.

International Trade committee  I think that's probably a question that may be more easily answered by my colleague Sara Wilshaw.

International Trade committee  I don't know the cost of the test offhand. Ideally, what we would look for is to be able to assure the EU that we don't need those kinds of tests because we will have taken the necessary steps within Canada, before the product is shipped to the EU, to an extent where we can assure them that it's just not an issue.

International Trade committee  I think that clearly we have been very much aware of the difficulties that our exporters have been encountering going into the European Union. We've had continuing conversations with the European Union at various levels, including the officials levels, the minister, and have been pushing this issue continually.

International Trade committee  That's probably the most significant holdup at this point in time. Until we can demonstrate that we don't have this in Canada, it's going to be a bit of a challenge to assure the EU that this is not going to be an issue with our bilateral trade. That is another issue we're working on.

International Trade committee  One of the things we have to do, and I think the most important thing we have to do, is to continue working with our own industry on our side to make sure we're taking the necessary steps to meet the conditions that are required to enter the European Union. It's a bit of work with the EU, but it's also a bit of work with our own production.

International Trade committee  Thank you. It was nice to see you.

International Trade committee  Our objectives for a Canada-U.K. agreement are very clear. We have not set them out in a formal document as of yet, but that is something that could clearly be done very quickly.

International Trade committee  As you well know, we've had a long-standing irritant with the U.S. with respect to softwood lumber. Given the most recent actions they've taken to reimpose tariffs, both anti-dumping and countervailing duty tariffs, against our softwood lumber producers, we have been challenging those measures under NAFTA and at the WTO.

International Trade committee  Aside from the kinds of modernization gains we made in the new NAFTA, particularly with respect to goods moving more easily back and forth across the border, the emphasis is on regulatory reform and on making all of these processes more modern and more simplistic. Going forward, we think there will be a greater emphasis on supply chains operating within North America, and that is the direction we're looking at.

International Trade committee  When we are talking about the U.K.... Well, I will start and Robert Fry might want to weigh in as well.

International Trade committee  Okay. I think that with the U.K. we've had the benefit of CETA, the agreement that we've had with the European Union and the U.K. now for a number of years. We would look to translate that into a bilateral agreement, and a large proportion of that work has already been done. We would have some elements that we would want to tailor specifically to the Canada-U.K. relationship, but, by and large, in that negotiation we have a considerable head start over other countries, because we have an existing trade agreement that applies currently between Canada and the U.K.

International Trade committee  I would like to turn to Eric Walsh to respond to that question.

International Trade committee  In this case, I think we have been discussing trade relations with the U.K. for some period of time. In fact, this probably goes back to when they initially indicated they were intending to withdraw from the European Union. We've been having ongoing discussions. We came very close to reaching an agreement with them early last year, when they put forward their plans with respect to the MFN tariff.