Agriculture committee  Again, I guess I'd echo some of the comments that Dennis made as to how important trade is for the beef sector. Over half of our production is exported. It adds value directly back to the cattle producer to have that access, because there are so many parts in the animal. There

Agriculture committee  I think right now the most significant ones are getting a good access agreement to Europe through the CETA, as well as concluding the Canada-Korea free trade agreement. That's a market that we've just regained as a result of a WTO case and negotiation. But the Americans now have

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. That statement that you mentioned is not the case. It's false. It's not being proposed. It's not going to happen. What has been proposed is amending the federal meat inspection regulations to allow a practice that does occur in some provinces' provincial facilities,

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. Right now, under the present circumstances, when a producer is in that scenario and has it go through a provincial facility, really the only option they have is to take that meat back for their own personal use to eat themselves, and for their family. Producers are fe

Agriculture committee  Thanks, Dennis. Despite that tradition of transatlantic beef and cattle trade, our access right now is currently very limited for beef. We see the CETA as a very important opportunity to address that scenario. They do have what they refer to as the hormone ban, which is not exa

International Trade committee  There are a lot of things in there. On the question of safety standards and whether they have a higher standard, it's not really whether the product is safer, but that they seem to have a higher perception. Every customer wants to say “Do something special for us so we can show

International Trade committee  It was on the impact of getting the age up.

International Trade committee  Right now we can't ship year-round. We have a real challenge January through May in getting enough cattle that are under 21 months, and that really impacts our ability to supply a customer year-round.

International Trade committee  In fact we're both competitors and partners with the United States. A lot of the beef that the United States ships to Japan is from Canadian cattle that are exported live into the United States. If we can have a free trade agreement and get in first with Japan, that gives our p

International Trade committee  There are a couple of things. First of all, we're not actually in the TPP, which is a problem.

International Trade committee  If we could wave that wand and get in the TPP, then that would be very beneficial for us and we could address it from that perspective. The next point is that whether Canada is in the TPP or not, I think at this point there's no guarantee that there will be a TPP agreement. The

International Trade committee  With regard to beef for Japan, it's Australia and the United States. They have about 90% to 95% of the import market. If you put Canada and New Zealand together, you get up to about 99%. So it's really Australia and the United States.

International Trade committee  It's not something we're concerned about. Japan has a special breed of cattle known as wagyu. Some people have heard of kobe beef. It's a breed of cattle that produces beef that is very highly marbled. When you see it, it's almost white. It's like eating butter. It's very delic

International Trade committee  Right. On the age limit, that doesn't even have to wait for an agreement. We think that there's a good process in place, and it could happen before we have this agreement.

International Trade committee  I would wave my wand and eliminate that tariff.