International Trade committee  Thank you very much. Bonjour. Good morning. My name is Martin Rice. I'm a director of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance. I represent the Canadian Pork Council, and I am pleased to be here on CAFTA's behalf to speak to committee members on the Canada-European Union comprehen

International Trade committee  I would not be doing justice to the Canola Council to suggest that I really understand their biotech issues in depth, but I have been part of delegations that have gone over. I think their major issue at the moment is in terms of the EU inability to accommodate any level in the i

International Trade committee  Certainly in the case of beef their supply chains are already looking at how they will ensure that the product meets the EU specifications. It's the same case for my sector, pork, where we're not using it. Even though their products are approved in most pork-producing countries o

International Trade committee  We know we have four companies already in Canada that are in a position to ship to the European Union. They meet all the requirements in terms of the feeding, in terms of the processing, and they have the supply lines that meet those requirements. Beef is a little bit further beh

International Trade committee  We don't ship very much under our existing quotas because they have very, very high tariffs. We do have actually a Canada quota that we achieved when the European Union expanded to include countries like Hungary and Poland. We have never used that because there is a tariff on tha

International Trade committee  When it was announced, it was the first piece of good news for our industry in five years. We've had several pieces of news, more recently our new disease concern, but it is the first time we have been ahead of our major competitors in accessing a new market. We're playing catch-

International Trade committee  We've seen a significant competition emerge from the United States. Back when NAFTA was implemented, the United States was a big net importer of pork. Now they're the world's largest exporter. There's no question if we want to continue to be a major exporter, we have to look at b

International Trade committee  That's right. It doesn't appear that their deal is going to happen overnight either.

International Trade committee  Agriculture has had a kind of standing consultation group for some time that provides updates not just on CETA but on other trade negotiations to all agrifood groups that want to be involved in them, both those interested in exports and those who are concerned about imports. In

International Trade committee  Yes. Our provincial members would have been communicating to their provincial governments.

International Trade committee  We did take advantage, of course, of the opportunity to go over and meet with other EU country delegations and so on. I think that by that manner we were able to really participate in quite a wide cross-section of interests involved in those negotiations. We spent a lot of time h

International Trade committee  It's fair to say we support it unreservedly.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  I think the biotech sector or the grain sector is still looking for further clarification on how the issue of low-level presence in residue monitoring is going to be addressed. Certainly in the case of meat, there are still some details to be worked out on testing protocols and o

International Trade committee  I'd say our position in terms of the deal in principle that we've seen at this point is unreserved, but those issues have to be addressed as well.