International Trade committee  That's right, and it goes even to the question of marijuana. We need a clearly defined set of rules that we know we can count on in the future. For example, there was speculation—this is the case you were alluding to—or concern for some months that the U.S. might be considering a

International Trade committee  It's does give us an edge.

International Trade committee  This is a policy question that I'd rather our company did not take a position on.

International Trade committee  I made the same comment earlier in the hearing. I believe they do great work, frankly. Could they be better? They probably could, but in our experience, they're great partners and they do help access foreign markets. But really, I don't see a lot of people who could use them usin

International Trade committee  Frankly, this is of concern right now to us. Legalizing marijuana is a social policy decision, and we don't have an opinion on that, but we are starting to worry about how it's going to impact our trade. For example, and I'm not talking just about Cavendish now, we have a truckin

International Trade committee  It's something that we're thinking about in our businesses. Probably one way of addressing this, for example in transport—and a lot of this is going to happen at the borders with transport—is to align things. For example, DOT in the U.S. has very stringent requirements and whatno

International Trade committee  Of course, there's the indirect impact. For example, this plant that we're constructing in Lethbridge, 80% of whose product will be for our export market, there are going to be a lot of new farmers—I don't have the numbers with me—who are going to be growing potatoes as a result.

International Trade committee  Currently, there are no duties on our exports to Mexico, nor to some countries in South America, but there are duties on exports to Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

International Trade committee  Okay. The advantage of an alliance like that is that there are clear rules of the game, and Canada takes part in the development of those rules. We support an agreement that can provide a framework for our trade. We see that as an advantage for Canada.

International Trade committee  Where Chile is concerned, the problem is not tariffs, but non-tariff barriers like inspections. Several inspections are atypical for our industry and we consider them a barrier to trade.

International Trade committee  It's possible that there are local market forces that want such barriers to exist, but we aren't experts on the Chilean and Latin American markets. In any case, we see such a free trade agreement as an instrument or lever that will allow us to broaden access to those markets.

International Trade committee  Having access to one country helps us to export to all of the neighbouring countries, because the logistics improve considerably. The more we can export our products to the south, the more our access to those markets improves.

International Trade committee  Usually what small businesses are missing is a lot of the internal strength to be able to process and wade through all of the regulations. To the extent that you have a clear, defined set of rules for trading with a country or a pact, that certainly makes it easier. The governme

International Trade committee  I didn't really come prepared to answer that, but I can certainly prepare a brief for the committee. For us, it's all about logistics. The faster we can reach those ports, the better, and so anything that will support that, obviously would be exactly the advantage that we feel we

International Trade committee  Thank you.