International Trade committee  Good morning, Mr. Chairman, and good morning, members of the committee. My name is Gilles Gauthier, and I am Canada's chief agriculture negotiator and director general for negotiations and multilateral trade policy at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. I'd like to thank the co

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. The position of Canada in respect of paragraph 71 is that we are pressing to obtain a minimum of 6% of our tariff line in the agricultural sector to be designated as sensitive product. The current proposal calls for 4% of tariff line. In order to adequately

International Trade committee  In December the then chair, Ambassador Falconer, did submit a working paper in which he outlined a few options to address Canada's desire to obtain 6%. Among these options is indeed a payment, in terms of increased TRQ, of a magnitude of 5% to 6%.

International Trade committee  That's correct.

International Trade committee  Mr. Chairman, I understand the wish to maintain supply management perfectly. I myself grew up on a dairy farm and I fully share your concerns. As for the slowness of the negotiations, you are aware that negotiations involving 153 countries take time, particularly when the framew

International Trade committee  Mr. Chairman, it is important to understand that supply management as such is not an issue in the negotiations. The negotiations deal with a global framework for agricultural sector subsidies and the opening of agricultural markets. No one around the negotiating table is asking f

International Trade committee  The last debriefing I made was a few weeks ago. We have meetings scheduled for this week in preparation for a negotiating session that will take place next week in Geneva. But these are ongoing, and I've made it clear to the industry that I'm always open and available for any dis

International Trade committee  With respect to your first question on the consultations, these are ongoing. We have regular meetings with the industry. We debrief them after each negotiating session to make sure they understand the full context of the negotiation. We seek their input as to what types of argume

International Trade committee  The current set of proposals on the table calls for a tariff cut of 23% to our tariff levels currently in place, and they call for an expansion of our tariff rate quota from 4% to 6%. The industry is of the view that this would have a devastating impact on them. On that score, it

International Trade committee  In both cases, the proposals are intended to grant Canada its request to have the right to designate up to 6% of tariff lines as sensitive products. That is the basic point. In exchange, Canada would have to accept the different ways of structuring its increase in quota. There a

International Trade committee  The agricultural negotiation group will meet next week. The final schedule has not yet been announced, but in any case, there will be discussions next week concerning Canada's position on sensitive products.

International Trade committee  No, they will take place in Geneva.

International Trade committee  Ah, I see.

International Trade committee  I'm sorry, I had misunderstood your question. We are holding consultations with industry representatives this week on the subject of supply management, here in Ottawa.

International Trade committee  They will take place today and tomorrow, here in Ottawa.