12 January 2009

2 minute read

North America

The Government is implementing two key recommendations: to create a market-access secretariat, and to pursue commercially-significant access to beef markets as a first step to achieve full access as recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

"Canadian producers want to make their living in the marketplace and this Government is working with them to tap new opportunities on the world stage," said Minister Ritz. "The roundtables have provided excellent advice which will form the foundation of our continued work to open new markets and to level the playing field for our exports."

Minister Ritz announced the creation of an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada market access secretariat to better co-ordinate government initiatives with producers and industry to aggressively and strategically go after new markets and keep pace with international competitors. The secretariat will include a range of trade experts to promote Canadian agricultural exports around the world.

The secretariat will work toward gaining expanded access beyond the U.S. for agricultural and agri-food products in promising markets such as Mexico, China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

The Government is also implementing livestock industry recommendations to pursue commercially-significant access to international beef markets as the first step in a staged process toward full OIE access.

"We agree with producers that Canada needs to get a foot in the door in many international markets while we remain committed to our goal to securing full OIE access for Canadian beef products around the world," said Minister Ritz.

TheCattleSite News Desk