Agriculture committee  I feel that China is the only country that gives value to most of the products exported there.

Agriculture committee  So, if the products are not sold in China, they lose a lot of their value. We are not really exporting to China at the expense of other markets. Products meant for China do not have a lot of other markets. In fact, even when they cannot be exported to China, they end up there by a different route in certain cases.

Agriculture committee  Controls that have been effective to a certain extent—

Agriculture committee  No, that is not what I said. I was talking about “maritime” imports, those coming in by sea.

Agriculture committee  That has nothing to do with the country. We think that there should be better control over what comes in by ship. Imports by land or air are relatively well controlled. We have our doubts about what comes in by sea. We saw what happened recently in the United States, where they found products, I forget how many tonnes, from China, some of which were processed products.

Agriculture committee  As I said just now, everyone involved wants to work together, whether at provincial or federal level. The same goes for the associations representing processors and producers. There is real awareness. Everyone is working together.

Agriculture committee  Yes, a joint symposium was recently held in Ottawa with the U.S. industry. We have never worked so closely with the United States. However, Canada and the United States are net exporters. Canada is to a greater extent, exporting almost 60% of the product, but the United States also has to export the product.

Agriculture committee  It could take several years for the situation to be back to normal in China. Some people think that the situation will never be back to normal completely. But, all things being equal, demand has grown recently in all developing countries, principally those in southeast Asia. That is true for China, and it will also be true for Vietnam, the Philippines, and so on.

Agriculture committee  We must not concentrate all our activities in a single country. There are some customers we have to keep, even if it means a sacrifice in terms of a reduced profit margin. In the short term, we have to let some opportunities go by in order to keep customers for the medium and long term.

Agriculture committee  Research work is being conducted. I don't have a name, but with the magnitude of the consequences of this disease, all the major pharmaceutical companies are certainly looking for a vaccine. The first one to find it will benefit the most.

Agriculture committee  I completely agree. The positive side of African swine fever, if there is one, will be that it has brought all the forces together to work toward finding solutions. I think we must continue to build on that momentum. I would remind you, as my colleague from Maple Leaf did, that in the short and medium term, we must ensure that this type of disease affecting animals is no longer a complete impediment to international trade.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we are following the same model as Maple Leaf. That being said, PED broke out a few years ago. We were able to avoid PED contamination in our facilities, both in eastern and western Canada, through meaningful transportation controls, such as cleaning up all our transportation equipment and controlling the movement of animals and people from farm to farm.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we have worked on various committees with the entire industry, including Maple Leaf, in order to submit recommendations and find ways to prevent it. So the entire pork industry, our competitors and producers alike, and government associations have been working together.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we have heard about it. We have made representations for controls to be put in place on all imports of feed. We know that there are some in what we call premixes, that is, vitamins, for example, that are used when manufacturing animal feed. We have asked for additional controls and we have even asked the industry to limit importing those sorts of products.

Agriculture committee  In terms of the trade problem at the Red Deer plant in particular, I will not make many comments. We are currently in talks and we hope that the matter will be resolved quickly. As for developing zoning agreements, we urge the government to enter into or conclude negotiations with the countries that are Canada's major clients.