International Trade committee  No, but there is some follow-up happening. Officials from both countries met in Italy, if I'm not mistaken.

International Trade committee  Yes, it's still Ms. Freeland. Ultimately, the Prime Minister is the one who appoints ambassadors, of course. Since the beginning, as Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, I've been making every effort to find a science-based solution. At the same time, work is happening on var

International Trade committee  No. Our goal right now is to keep the discussion on a scientific level. We don't want to add to the anxiety or speculation on the issue. The Chinese officials are faulting our product for being of lower quality than it should be or of lower quality than they were expecting. Kee

International Trade committee  I've been working on this issue since the day after taking office as Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. I'm in talks with departmental and CFIA experts, as well as my provincial counterparts and the various associations that represent grain farmers, specifically, canola farme

International Trade committee  Obviously, I'm not the one who can tell farmers what to plant. I can say that we are really doing our best all together in a non-partisan way with stakeholders because we understand the importance and the emergency of this issue for them right now at this time of the season. We h

International Trade committee  We've been informed there's a third company that received a noncompliance notification, but at this time I'm not allowed to share the details on this. It doesn't mean they are suspended at this time. We will obviously keep working with them and see how it goes. I forgot the seco

International Trade committee  We haven't been informed officially that there is an impact on other commodities. Of course the situation is creating uncertainty in the markets. As is always the case, uncertainty might bring some buyers or importers of our product to delay. This is a possibility, but I have no

International Trade committee  Yes, this will definitely be on the agenda. This is why I want to work with the working group, to get as much data and information as possible to make sure that whatever we decide on to improve this program, or another one eventually, we choose the best one—the one that will have

International Trade committee  I strongly believe it's the best way to find a lasting solution actually, because the Chinese are telling us that the issue is that they have found some kind of pest or irregularities in our shipments, and we have taken—as we normally do, or always do—samples and analyzed them be

International Trade committee  I'll let the president of the CFIA answer your question since it's more technical.

International Trade committee  I would say that we are very well aligned. We all agree that we have to protect our brand and protect our system as well. This is why we have created the working group as well. We think it's very important to keep working in a collaborative manner and to share information on a re

International Trade committee  Thank you. Maybe I can start by remembering everyone who is participating in the group: the Canola Council of Canada, the Canadian Canola Growers Association, the two companies involved, Richardson and Viterra, and obviously our federal government, but also our counterparts from

International Trade committee  I've travelled there and I've had the chance to meet with some farmers in many different round tables, so I understand the issue. I understand that this time of the season is particularly difficult for them because they have to make decisions. We have a lot of programs already i

International Trade committee  The first thing I did was to call the three ministers of the prairie provinces, I think the Wednesday, the day right after this situation started, to make a first connection and to assure them that I was following the situation closely and that I wanted to make sure that we colla

International Trade committee  We have to get to the end of this—