Evidence of meeting #66 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 indian.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
Thirty-four million: so you can imagine that there might well be some opportunities for Canada to do this.
One thing I thought you might focus on and that I was surprised at was the reference to your company, which is the Pacific Exotic Foods company. Briefly, what do you do?
4:30 p.m.
President, Pacific Exotic Food Inc.
I started my company by importing and exporting Indian groceries. I was the first one to start making natural juices and tropical juices. That's why it was given the name: Exotic Foods. For the natural fruit juices, I deal with major chain stores here, such as Sobeys and Save-On-Foods, and all kinds of things, plus some exporting to the U.S.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
You'll forgive me because I don't know: do you experience tariff barriers when you bring products from India to Canada?
4:30 p.m.
President, Pacific Exotic Food Inc.
I bring them from India to Canada and I manufacture here. I bring raw material here from India.
4:30 p.m.
Conservative
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
4:35 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
I don't mean to be rude, because I think you have a propensity to dialogue. I think you would make very good in politics, but it strikes me—
4:35 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
4:35 p.m.
An hon. member
You're an example.
4:35 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
Respectfully, would a free trade agreement help your business, yours specifically?
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
For you, Mr. Ghuman, just so I can understand it better, because you're in real estate. Could you imagine that a free trade agreement, or at least one that establishes clearer rules between two sovereign states, would help your business?
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
I'm getting some positives.
You're dying to say something, Mr. Dhesi, I sense that.
4:35 p.m.
As an Individual
—to some extent yes, but what about my investment? The government should be there to protect me—
4:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
Perfect. Again, it's the importance of a rules-based system to help protect investment, to help protect your business interests, and also to lower tariff barriers in your case, Mr. Dhesi—
4:35 p.m.
As an Individual
Just like Mr. Dhesi, I have done the import-export business with India from Canada. It was about eight or nine years ago, and I had some problems. It happened to be my partner, who was from India and really did an excellent job ripping me off. After one year or so, I said “thank you very much”. I lost some money, not very much, and I closed my business.