Making sure trade deals are fully implemented requires as much funding and expert personnel as it takes to negotiate them, says Claire Citeau, Executive Director of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance. Once an agreement is reached, the federal government needs to allocate sufficient funding and trade specialists to ensure the deal is fully implemented, she told the Senate agriculture committee study on the state of the country's food processing sector. A case in point is the Canada-Europe trade deal that came into force last September “and presents huge potential for making greater inroads in this market,” she said. “But it will take some time for some of our exporters to get real access to the E.U. due to the slow progress that the E.U. is making in allowing commercially viable access to the market,” she said. Unresolved issues include meat-processing protocols, crop-protection products, country-of-origin labelling and the timely approval of biotechnology traits. “Our members are also very concerned with recent protectionist measures from member states under the guise of country-of-origin labelling provisions that are not in the spirit of the CETA,” she said. “Typically, once free trade agreements are implemented, multiple non-tariff barriers arise. “So it's essential that adequate funding be allocated to the Market Access Secretariat so that it can continue its critical work of minimizing technical barriers to trade and restoring real access for exporters,” she said. CAFTA's members, which represent the bulk of agrifood exporters, are looking “to diversify markets, get better value for their products, but also find markets for products they can't sell at home or in the U.S. For example, in Asia, some of our meat members will be able to sell parts of the animals that they are not able to sell in the U.S. or Canada or Europe.” A top priority for agrifood exporters is for the federal government to introduce legislation to implement the CPTPP to secure Canada's place in the new Pacific trade deal, she said. “The CPTPP will not only provide the sector with unprecedented access to the high-value Japanese market and rapidly growing Asian markets, such as Vietnam and Malaysia, but it will also provide Canada with a competitive advantage over the U.S. since the U.S. is not part of the agreement at this time.” It's most likely that Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Mexico and Brunei will ratify and implement the CPTPP before the end of 2018, she said. Canada needs to meet that timeline. A spokesman for Trade Minister Francois-Phillipe Champagne said “The minister has always said we are committed to prompt ratification and we are working on it.” As for the NAFTA negotiations, she said Canada needs “a modernized agreement that will strengthen the access and competitiveness of the nation's farm and food products. In short, maintain what's been working and modernize NAFTA where possible. Specifically, the renegotiation should not allow it to include new tariffs or non-tariff barriers or any new provisions that could be used to limit trade.” CAFTA wants a new NAFTA to enable further growth for canola, grains, meats, sugar and sugar-containing products, among others, and in areas such as greater regulatory alignment and dispute settlement mechanisms, she said. Canada also needs to assign cabinet ministers and senior officials with building relationships with key markets and support embassies and agricultural trade commissioners, Citeau said. “Canada's ability to build a competitive industry depends in large part on how well the country opens doors abroad.” Pursuing a free trade deal with China “would boost our current exports to the world's second-largest economy,” she said. “China has already shown its willingness to embrace freer trade with agrifood countries, like New Zealand, Australia and Chile, and the rewards have proven substantial. With China poised to become the world's largest agrifood importer by 2020, becoming a supplier of choice and securing predictable access to China will be critical to jobs and the economy here at home.” She reminded the Senators that Canada used to be the No. 3 food exporting country but now stands 5th. Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.