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International Trade committee Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and honourable members. Thank you for having our president here at the table today. First, let me introduce Canada Pork International. We're the export promotion and development agency of the Canadian pork industry. We are an association of hog
November 17th, 2010Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
International Trade committee This is also an issue in the pork sector. We see a lot of this: products coming from South America in Canadian boxes, with mistakes on them. We even saw some Maple Leaf beef, although Maple Leaf has no beef processing. I think it's a reality for a lot of sectors in agriculture wi
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
International Trade committee If we're talking about paylean, that was in China. There's no issue at this point with Korea. It was a very big story in the fall. A lot of U.S. plants, some in Canada also, have been banned. If we're talking about this situation, there are some political motives behind the Chine
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
International Trade committee We had minor issues three or four years ago, but I'd say that in general for pork it's one of the easiest markets we've been dealing with on market access, on SPS, the sanitary and phytosanitary side. But that's just for pork. I understand it might be different in other sectors.
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
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
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
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
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
International Trade committee I don't know whether we're talking about units of production infrastructure or infrastructure like port and transportation infrastructure.
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
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
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
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
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
International Trade committee Both are used to ship product. This is really a major problem in the pork industry.
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
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
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
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
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
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.
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
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.
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie
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
February 4th, 2008Committee meeting
Martin Lavoie