Neil McDonnell

We're dealing with a market that's almost as big in size as the European Union.

And at a time when globalization is under threat, certainly in North America, it's absolutely good news to see

that saner heads have prevailed and we're going to have a free trade agreement between Europe and most of South America.

No, and that's factually untrue.

And CETA has given us the playbook on that already.

So this is exactly the same rhetoric as was applied when Europe did the deal with Canada.

Because our standards have remained robust, because our inspection regime has remained robust, the amount of Canadian beef coming into Europe has remained very small.

And as a matter of fact, it's a provable fact, our beef exports to Canada have increased.

Whether I'm wearing wellingtons or not during this conversation is completely irrelevant.

The data says that free trade is good for farmers as well as everyone else.

And I would like to remind Francie and other people in the agricultural community, it's not just about agriculture.

There are other people working in this.

There are sons and daughters of farmers who stand to gain from this deal as well.

So this is almost all upside and very little downside.

The 99,000 tonnes of beef that are coming in this direction, if every single one of them is prime fillet,

That's one steak per European citizen per year.

Please, let's not exaggerate the cost of this deal.

Well, I mean, the facts around CETA are actually quite clear.

Not alone have they not borne cost.

First of all, substandard beef has not made it back into this market.