In the case of Germany, revenue from excise duty on beer in 2002 was €808.99 million and the tax revenue from excise duty on cigarettes was €13 346.2 million.

In the present Excise Act, there is not only wine, spirits, tobacco and ship's stores, as is the case for Bill C-47, but also the beer the Brewers Association of Canada wanted to see excluded, even if this is the appropriate time and place for a reform of the excise tax on beer.

In my opinion, this disqualifies you—and we will see what my colleagues have to say—from dealing with this bill and from deciding whether or not we can deal with the excise tax on beer, especially where microbreweries are concerned, when it was the Brewers Association of Canada which sent you a letter stating that we should not introduce a provision reducing the excise tax in Bill C-47, that this was not a good idea, that we should wait, that we had to examine the complexity of the issue and do further analyses of the whole excise tax matter, in addition to everything that has been done over the past five years.

Where, if not in a bill dealing with the excise tax, are we to amend the excise tax on microbrewery beer in order to correct an unfair situation vis-à-vis microbreweries who are your competitors in the United States and in several European countries?

Excise duty on beer is very high in our country but, ladies and gentlemen, what we cannot eliminate is the price gap that exists between us and our neighbour to the east.

In another case the Court gave judgment against Luxembourg and Belgium since, under their excise schemes, imported beers did not qualify for the same rebates as home-produced beers.