International Trade committee  Well, I can tell you a little bit about what I know, and it's as you said. I'm excited, too. The opportunities are huge. Pulses have been well established in the Middle East, and they've been eating them for centuries. It's kind of new to us. We can grow them well. We don't consume a lot of them here in North America, so when you look for opportunities for expansion, right here at home is part of that.

International Trade committee  Further to that, we talked about this earlier. In our case, for whole pulses, you're starting to ship fractions, so the protein, starch.... Food ingredients are huge right now, and that's where a lot of the talk is, whether it's using them on their own or in supplementing another product, a local product.

International Trade committee  Exactly, yes, and like we said, it also opens up those opportunities in countries outside of the TPP. If you're somebody that's not into it, well, you're going to want to get in. You want to make it into the cool kids' club, right? You want to get into the TPP. It creates that culture of free trade and letting business work the way it's designed.

International Trade committee  It's just something short I will say. Will it address all of our issues? Probably not. However, it gives you that forum, that panel, that spot to have that discussion, as opposed to having that discussion with China, Japan, or Myanmar. Do you know what I mean? They are efficiencies.

International Trade committee  Anytime you have a trade agreement with another country that facilitates trade, and thus eliminate barriers and set standards, we'd always welcome that. Obviously, that's a choice India would like to make. India, for pulses, is obviously a huge market for us. Anytime we can increase our trade with another country, absolutely....

International Trade committee  I had the opportunity to travel to India in February of this year and meet with various pulse millers and people in the trade there. There's lots of interest. They want to increase imports of our product. They love our product. It's a high-quality product they can use readily. The big question I have is related to transportation and the availability of supply.

International Trade committee  Exactly. How do I get it from your farm? They just don't understand the concept that it's 1,300 or 1,600 kilometres to the water. That's key. Anything that can facilitate transportation to get that product there, that's a key part for us.

International Trade committee  Right now in Canada we export 75% of the pulses we grow. Canada is not world leader in the marketing of many products, but we are do lead in pulses. The world looks to us to give direction to where the next year's production is going to be. Land is land, and farmers are businessmen.

International Trade committee  Then we're at a disadvantage. Crops that grow in southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan also grow in the northern United States. So if they ratify and we don't, they have preferential treatment.

International Trade committee  Yes, they are looking for those opportunities to invest in Canada that can facilitate that and get that product in place. It may be in smaller quantities, less bulk, more fractions, more flours, look at different options, and then facilitate it through an agreement that removes those concerns such as you mentioned earlier, the non-tariff trade barriers, that we run into more often than not.

International Trade committee  Well, I can speak to what I've seen in my travels in Southeast Asia. I've had the opportunity to go to China and India over the last few years, which aren't TPP countries, but they're in that area. They're all looking for areas of investment. Like you say, they're looking for predictability and access to the supply.

International Trade committee  Mr. Chairman and committee members, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is D'Arcy Hilgartner. I'm a farmer from Camrose, Alberta, which is 45 minutes southeast of Edmonton. I'm also the vice-chair of the Alberta Pulse Growers. This is the first time I have the pleasure to present at committee; however, I know you've heard from members of Alberta pulse industry several times over the years.