Agriculture committee  Yes, that's certainly an important question in the negotiations right now. Canada has been probably the most active player in the negotiations in terms of providing new creative ideas for trying to move the negotiations forward and advancing our interests. When it comes to the issue of sensitive products, we have taken a very hard line and said that consistent with the motion, we will not be accepting or talking about tariff reductions or tariff quota expansion for supply-managed products.

Agriculture committee  I think that's really going to depend on where we manage to come out. I think what's under discussion right now are some fairly important moves forward. Certainly the elimination of export subsidies is something that Canada has sought for a long, long time. If we can get some real, effective cuts in domestic subsidies, particularly those being provided by our neighbour to the south, then that will make a difference to us, and it will allow our producers to compete on a fair basis.

Agriculture committee  Certainly, as you say, the major objective of the Doha Round was to improve the opportunities for developing countries in the international marketplace, and I think that while the current focus has been on discussions between the U.S. and Europe, the issue of development, improving the situation of developing countries, is still front and centre in the negotiations.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I think we're certainly in a period now where the next few months are going to make the difference as to whether we can move this forward or not. There have been a lot of discussions between the U.S. and Europe at a very detailed technical level. Our understanding is that they are making progress.

Agriculture committee  We certainly bring a fairly difficult negotiating position to the WTO. That has always been the case. We have very different interests in our agriculture sector in Canada, and the export-oriented part of our sector is clearly interested in more access, getting rid of subsidies to the extent we can, whereas supply management is clearly interested in maintaining border protection to the extent that's possible.

Agriculture committee  To date, I can't say I've seen any real impact. I was in Geneva last week--I got home on the weekend--and it was raised by a number of countries with me, some of them expressing concern that it would affect their interests, but I can't say I've seen any linkage being made to the negotiations, at least until this stage.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Steve Verheul. I'm Canada's chief trade negotiator for agriculture. I'd like to thank the committee for asking me to appear here today to talk about the status of the WTO negotiations. I'm going to begin my remarks by reviewing some of the recent developments at the WTO and what they mean for Canada in particular.