International Trade committee  Just to speak briefly to the institutionalization of discrimination, there have been advantages. It's a balanced issue when we talk about FTAs. For example, one positive is that in Colombia, our basic deal has basically matched the U.S. trade liberalization agreements within thei

International Trade committee  You can assume that they're going to be or they're not going to be; it's hard to say. Well, we're going to be, but for a year, and then the U.S. will. The framework agreements have been completed. If we assume for a moment that both will eventually be ratified, that is institut

International Trade committee  The WTO focuses on common rules, whether or not the members or participants bring to the table a great deal of economic power in a particular negotiation or whether they are relatively less powerful in negotiation. That's the primary difference between the process of FTAs and the

International Trade committee  Speaking from the beef perspective for a moment, there's about $10 million a year available for international promotion of our products worldwide, including the United States. We know that our number one competitor out of North America is funded with approximately $40 million in

International Trade committee  There are many arguments that would favour trade in meat over trade in live animals. We appreciate the ability to trade, in our industry, live cattle to the United States, again for competition reasons. But from a strategic perspective, and based on economic argument alone, trade

International Trade committee  Japan, I did mention; India, I don't believe so. I mentioned Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, and Mexico with increasing focus on the European Union, Russia, and the Middle East, North Africa. Those are the regions of current priority and emerging.... Canad

International Trade committee  Committee chair and committee members, thank you very much for the invitation to present to you today. The Canada Beef Export Federation is an independent, non-profit industry association. It was created in 1989 to build export demand for Canadian beef in a global marketplace. S

Agriculture committee  Particularly the decision to work with Hong Kong on this relatively complex incremental access was a sign of great hope for our industry, because we showed our cooperative face to increase access step by step, in a way that at each step provided additional economic returns to our

Agriculture committee  No question, the two are related. COOL represents a restriction on the ability to generate full-value trade to the U.S. It's a trade protectionist policy, so that means the need to generate full competition from all other markets is part of the solution in addition to challenging

Agriculture committee  I believe, as I said in my opening statement, that both within industry and governments, new international focus, orientation, and culture are required. I'll give you a short example to show that: electronic certification of the movement of beef products. Years ago we put into

Agriculture committee  Age verification is a tool that is particularly useful right now for the market in Japan, where imports of beef are restricted for animals under 21 months of age. There's no reasonable physiological measurement to identify these animals once they're already a carcass, so age veri

Agriculture committee  On just the numbers, I agree. The Canadian market is an absolutely vital base that we need to continue to pay a lot of attention to. But again, the numbers just say that if we were able to generate a 20% increase in consumption in Canada, it would increase the absorption rate fro

Agriculture committee  No problem. It's one thing to increase meat-processing capacity, but it reminds me of the saying “all revved up, but you have to have some place to go”, and that's trade. The U.S. and Canada generate revenue from cattle a little differently. In the U.S., in the best environment,

Agriculture committee  This relates to your first question. The time when producers have the highest percentage of Canadian retail revenues is when there is the maximum demand for our products worldwide. In 2002 we had a much higher percentage for producers in the Canadian retail, because we exported 6

Agriculture committee  My name is Ted Haney. I'm president of Canada Beef Export Federation, and with me is Gib Drury, our board chair and a producer from the province of Quebec. Mr. Chairman, honourable members, thank you for giving us the opportunity to present to you today. The Canada Beef Export