International Trade committee  Thank you. I will start with my presentation on the Pacific Alliance. I'm here today with Martin Charron, the vice-president of Canada Pork International and the director for Asia, Africa, and Europe. I am in charge of Latin American markets and the Caribbean. Canada Pork Inte

International Trade committee  For starters, Colombia must be about our 10th largest market right now, in terms of volume. During the last three or four years, probably, we've seen consistent growth, especially last year when we jumped from 5,000 metric tonnes to 7,000 metric tonnes. The other one is Chile. C

International Trade committee  Definitely, yes.

International Trade committee  As business develops and as business grows, more and more companies see markets as being attractive. As this occurs, meat plants will automatically become eligible to export, and that is by requesting through federal and official channels a sort of petition.

International Trade committee  Trade with Brazil is extremely limited, basically because of trade barriers. In terms of the meat industry, Brazil is probably one of our largest competitors abroad. We face competition with Brazil in larger markets such as China and Russia, probably not now because of recent ch

International Trade committee  When the FTA was enforced, the way the Colombian government was able to administer the quotas was quite complex. Exporters and importers in the country have a hard time trying to understand the procedure because it changes every year, and the procedures for the meat business in t

International Trade committee  Yes, for sure. I know the pork industry samples diseases all over the national herd, to look for diseases present, or not, in the herd. The idea is that we come up with corrective actions for this. In the case of trichinella, we haven't found any positive sampling, and we would

International Trade committee  Most of the time, yes, specifically for the largest net importers. In the case of China, for instance, ractopamine is an issue. It is a veterinary restriction that can be imposed on countries that use it, such as ours. Therefore, none of our products can reach that country. For t

International Trade committee  That's the way we look at it, given that we could enhance trade by a superior, a higher, agreement with this bloc. Yes, definitely, it's something we look at that way.

International Trade committee  If those tariffs were lifted, we could see probably a growth in exports of between 30% to 50%. That is because our main competitor, the U.S., has a higher tariff rate imposed on their exports. If I remember correctly, I think this year the U.S. rate is 18%. Because the FTA betwee

International Trade committee  Definitely, that would be a result of—

International Trade committee  As I mentioned previously, having a regional agreement would allow us to probably review bilateral agreements and therefore improve on those market access conditions, such as veterinary and sanitary protocols, TRQ management imposed by some countries, and grade reductions.

International Trade committee  In regard to the Canadian pork industry, I can tell you that that may not be the case.

International Trade committee  It would not be the case, actually. One of the things we try to use as a defence, as a promotional statement abroad, is our craftsmanship. We put a lot of emphasis on quality and product specification, and this is unique to Canada.

International Trade committee  Thank you. Honourable members of Parliament, I'll introduce myself really quickly. I am the director for Latin America of Canada Pork International. I'll describe what CPI is and what we do in the pork industry. Canada Pork International, CPI, is the export market development