International Trade committee  I think that's a conversation we want to have collectively with us, the packers, and the processors to sit down with the department and craft something. To give you a couple of examples, in order for the cattle to be eligible, they have to be raised without the hormones.

International Trade committee  To do that, it's probably about an extra 20% cost of production. Half of that is the physical cost of feeding them and keeping them longer. Probably half of it is the documentation and having the CFI certify your facility. A lot of producers are holding off on that until they kno

International Trade committee  Yes, absolutely. With the Korea agreement, our only complaint is that we wish we could have gotten it done earlier. We did get the same access into the Korean market as the Americans did, but we're three years behind them. That would be one of our hopes for the TPP; Korea wants

International Trade committee  Thanks, Dan. As it stands today without CETA, the European Union's most favoured nation tariff on beef imports varies, depending on the form of the beef, but it's in the neighbourhood of 3,000 euros per tonne, plus 12.5%. It is a prohibitively high tariff now without the agreeme

International Trade committee  Farmers operate on razor-thin margins. A few per cent can be the difference as to whether you keep your farm or not. I would also say, on dispute settlement, that the Canadian beef industry has been a good user of the dispute settlement system. It helped us resolve the country o

International Trade committee  I have not heard that they've scheduled another negotiating round.

International Trade committee  The only update—

International Trade committee  I think that's a really important area where some analysis needs to be done. I know that people talk about there being a small benefit overall. It's a positive benefit, but you don't hear a whole lot about the negative impact of not going forward, because there is no status quo.

International Trade committee  I think so, absolutely. You have to look at the investment in the meat packing sector in Canada, and the cattle-feeding sector. If the United States has that advantage and you're a company.... Of the three largest beef packers in Canada doing about 90% of the federally inspec

International Trade committee  We think it's a very viable strategy that should be explored.

International Trade committee  That's an extremely important point. In fact, it was our objective to catch back up to Australia and go beyond. On day one of TPP's coming into effect, the Japanese tariff for Canadian beef will immediately drop to the same level that Australian beef gets, so we'll be equal again

International Trade committee  In terms of the ability to compete, Australia has a bit of a geographic advantage over us. They have a slightly different beef. We have very different genetics in Canada; we have a northern, cooler climate; we produce beef that marbles better and has very good quality that the Ja

International Trade committee  That's very much the case. Many people think of Vietnam right now as being, as Hong Kong was 30 years ago, poised. If you look back at where we exported beef to 15 years ago, before the BSE scenarios, we exported almost nothing to China and Hong Kong. They weren't very high among

International Trade committee  Right. That is what we expect in the Japanese market. If you think of our having done more than $100 million in beef exports with a 38.5% tariff, bringing the tariff down to 9%—we would have liked to go to zero, but it is going to 9%—would result in increased margins for the Cana

International Trade committee  I've signed so many of those confidentiality forms over the years for this negotiation or that. The government is willing, and in fact eager, to consult with people who have views, who can make these agreements better. My view is, if you weren't consulted, you really didn't try v