International Trade committee  Dispute settlement mechanisms are really important. I did it.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Arya. Yes, it is a market that is growing in Ecuador. I will be straight on that one. It's a market that interests us. Our processors have applied to have access to this market. In addition to having access to a larger region, that also places us in a leadership position to help with science-based principles and non-tariff trade barriers or the absence of non-tariff trade barriers.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Jeneroux. Let's start with access to Colombia and access to the region in general. As mentioned, it's not currently a large market, but to help out in building up this market, having access to the region also helps our processors and our exporters to reach out. It's generally organizations or trade organizations or consumers that are related from one country to the other.

International Trade committee  Yes. The infrastructure is close from one to the other, but also the types of products tend to be similar from one region to the other. This helps when it's time to do the processing. We know how valuable our labour is. If we can be more efficient in the cuttings that we are doing, so that they are going ion more than one region at once, it helps our industry to be nimble and be more competitive.

International Trade committee  Yes, it was a challenging one. We were talking with some of our Asian partners in the last weeks. They were mentioning that having a good product is great, but it must be reliable. It must arrive on time. This is another challenge for our industry. It's a perishable product. It cannot wait.

International Trade committee  Do you mean the fact that we are not able to ship anymore, right now?

International Trade committee  Absolutely. Yes, it was, not only for our importers but also for our producers, because it can also create backlogs, and we cannot wait with our pork in our barns. They grow and we have no space for them for a long period of time.

International Trade committee  In terms of pork products for our producers, when it's time to ship our pork, we have a little flexibility. I will talk in terms of days, sometimes weeks. It's relatively limited. We're not talking about months here. We are talking sometimes in terms of weeks. When it is shipped to the processor, then it depends on how it is used.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Vice-Chair, for the invitation. Thank you to the committee members for your work on this issue on behalf of Canadians. My name is René Roy, and I am the chair of the Canadian Pork Council. I am a producer myself. As the third-largest pork exporter in the world, trade policies are of the utmost importance to the prosperity and vitality of the Canadian pork industry.

International Trade committee  I will relay this question to Mr. Heckbert.

International Trade committee  Yes. The pork industry relies on a large number of trade partners or countries. There are some that are more important than others, such as the U.S. China has also been an important trade partner for a period of time. When it reverts its position, our processors will have to look for other markets quite quickly.

International Trade committee  Thank you for the invitation, Madam Chair, and thank you to the committee members for your work on this issue. My name is René Roy, and I am the chair of the Canadian Pork Council. Joining me is Stephen Heckbert, who is our executive director. As the third-largest pork exporter of the world, trade policies are of utmost importance to the prosperity and vitality of the Canadian pork industry.

Agriculture committee  There's no question that increasing regional processing capacity actually reduces the amount of transportation we have to do, so it benefits everyone. However, certain economic constraints mean that there's a concentration. However, this concentration poses a problem for producers and also decreases our resilience in the agri-food sector.

Agriculture committee  That's a good question, which I can't answer because I'm not familiar with that provision. I can get back to you on that.

Agriculture committee  That's one of our requests: it has to be clarified and put in writing. This interpretation cannot be required of all those responsible for enforcing the law. It has to be in writing, or our industry can't know about it either.