International Trade committee  The pork industry had frequent meetings with the negotiators at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Also, we've been fortunate to be in Korea at the same time as some of the rounds were happening. So I can say we've been involved and consulted. As we said, now that we know what the

International Trade committee  I can talk for the pork side. I think they have the feeling—or this is their argument—that they gave as much as they could to the U.S. There were a lot of demonstrations in Korea after the tentative agreement between the U.S. and Korea. That created a lot of pressure on the polit

International Trade committee  Well, there are different scenarios to it. I know for sure what the result of our not having a free trade agreement when our competitors do is going to be: in more than a year, this is going to be zero. As you know, things are changing quickly in the meat sector, with foreign an

International Trade committee  In the last three years in--I don't know how it was translated into English--chilled pork, which is fresh pork, our sales have really been picking up. This is where the U.S. made most of their growth. There are obviously a lot of opportunities in this sector. As we mentioned, we

International Trade committee  Canada Pork International was created to diversify exports away from the U.S. market. Actually, our mandate for promotion excludes the U.S. I think we realized that after a few countervail duty inquiries. It goes back to the beginning of the 1990s, where we made that decision.

International Trade committee  Yes, especially for significant markets such as Korea. We're facing a situation where some of our competitors, such as Chile, have done a fantastic job in reaching Korea, the EU, and Mexico, and with Japan. I think, as I mentioned, we've been focusing on markets that do not matte

International Trade committee  We have access to government funding through the CAFI program, which is managed by Agriculture Canada. The amount that we're receiving on a yearly basis is $1.2 million for all markets. The decision to promote in the Korean market is ours. We have to go based on our priorities.

International Trade committee  Yes, and these are matching funds, so the industry has to come up with the same amount of money to leverage similar amounts from the federal government. What I was about to say is that really all of our markets, North America and Japan, are loin markets. The only market that doe

International Trade committee  I don't know whether we're talking about units of production infrastructure or infrastructure like port and transportation infrastructure.

International Trade committee  You have to consider that there may be an adjustment in demand. What is important is that product will shift from the markets that currently offer less return to Korea. That's not necessary short-term demand; it's more of a market transfer. That said, we currently have enormous

International Trade committee  Port and transportation infrastructure. There are certain points. First, there is the instability of collective negotiations in the railway and port fields. The pork industry is a very big user of the Port of Vancouver. That's a big problem. Canada has always been a reliable sup

International Trade committee  Both are used to ship product. This is really a major problem in the pork industry.

International Trade committee  In the past, we've also asked that products like refrigerated pork—we're not talking about frozen pork here, but rather refrigerated pork, which has a very limited shelf life—be on the list of products essential to the continuation of exports. However, it costs $40,000 per shipme

International Trade committee  I don't know whether that should necessarily be included in the free trade agreement or managed separately, but, in the case of grain, for example, we're talking about an essential product. We think that the shelf life of frozen pork and beef is the same. It's shorter than that o

International Trade committee  I can just say quickly, for pork, what they're looking at is a reduction. The tariff for frozen products is currently 25%. The reduction relative to the U.S. agreement is approximately 3.1% per year over seven years until the tariff is completely eliminated. So we're definitely