Evidence of meeting #16 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was services.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Chief Trade Negotiator, Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
I'm sorry. The two numbers were 0.5% of world population and 2.6% of world trade. The difference between the two numbers explains our high standard of living.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
Hence there is the need to pursue strong agreements with an economy as huge as India's economy.
I want to get a little clarification. You talked about the Canada-India Research Centre of Excellence that was announced in the last budget. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? Just for my purposes, I want to understand how it's intended to work.
12:55 p.m.
Chief Trade Negotiator, Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
I don't know a lot about the program. As I understand it, it's administered by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. There is an ongoing competition among Canadian universities for these funds. Because of my contacts with Canadian educational institutions in India—as I say, they're very active in India—I know anecdotally that most of the major universities are working on proposals for that competition. Typically they are working in partnership with other schools—in strategic partnerships among schools—to present a proposal under the program.
As Luc was saying, it's a very wide target. It involves any number of areas of mutual interest between Canada and India, including technology development, but research and policy issues are in the mix as well. I suspect that the proposals made by each of the different coalitions or conglomerates of schools will be very different and will focus on very different aspects of innovation. I believe the competition will conclude sometime in the first part of next year.
1 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
I believe that my own university, Western, in London, Ontario, the tenth largest city in Canada, is very active in that. If I recall, a meeting I had there on the science and tech side with representatives from India showed they were very keen on fostering that relationship. It will be interesting to see how we can take advantage of the growth of the 1,000-plus universities they will require in the future, as well as the multitudes more of colleges they're looking for. You said in your comments that you felt this was a huge opportunity for Canada to do that through our education system.
My quick question is now done. I was going to get into a fairly extended discussion about that, but I'll do it off-line if I might.
Thanks, Chair.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Our time is about gone.
Before I thank you for coming, I'll just ask you a quick question on your timelines. I believe you said there were seven rounds left. Is that right?
1 p.m.
Chief Trade Negotiator, Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
There is not a defined number of rounds left.
1 p.m.
Chief Trade Negotiator, Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
What we have agreed with India is that there would be rounds at roughly two-month intervals from here until the summer. Then we would take stock of our schedule.
The Prime Minister, in the Speech from the Throne, instructed me to finish the negotiations by 2013--
1 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
1 p.m.
Chief Trade Negotiator, Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
--and that's my plan.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Okay. I just needed the timeline.
We want to thank you for coming in. This is our initial meeting on the comprehensive trade agreement between Canada and India and we'll be following your progress very closely as a committee. I want to thank you for coming in.
Mr. Easter?
1 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Just before you adjourn, on the trip, Rob, has any progress been made on meeting with civil society?
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
By tomorrow I think we'll have a draft program laid out. It will go to your offices.
1 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
What I really think we need to do when we're there, whether it's some of the farm groups or some of the intellectual property groups or whatever....we really need to meet some people outside of the parliamentary precinct to get a feel for what they're saying.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
I hear what you're saying. The agenda is being looked after in the best way we possibly can.
With that, thank you very much for coming in and helping us.
We will be on a debrief of the trip on the Tuesday meeting when we come back.
Thank you. The meeting is adjourned.