International Trade Committee on Oct. 7th, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, Randy Hoback]

Mr. Pacetti.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for coming forward today.

Mr. Lee, just quickly, you started to speak about the benefit or the reason you set up your business, and then you went on and spoke about numbers and the benefits of free trade. How does this affect you personally or your company? I'm not sure I caught that part.

[David Lee]

I taught many people, as I mentioned, many Koreans, like the next generation. I taught many Korean students, so I hope if Canadian companies hire these kinds of people, it's very beneficial, not only for Canada, but Korea. I've already heard that some company based in B.C. hires Korean young guys who were born and educated here, and just sends them to Korea—

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

You're trying to perfect the Korean language for Canadian-born Koreans?

[David Lee]

For both of them, yes.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Have you seen an increase, or is there an interest, or are you just speculating that there will be?

[David Lee]

Sometimes I'm speculating.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Okay, thank you. I just wanted to clear that up.

Mr. Suk, let's focus on the cultural side. I agree with you in terms of the business; I think everyone around the table agrees on the business side. But on the cultural side, you organize an event. I'm more familiar with the Italian community, and we bring in Italian entertainers, and that boosts interest. Is there any of that that goes on during your culture week?

[Mike M. Suk]

Yes. Historically, the festival has been on the more traditional elements of Korea. This year we targeted the modern dynamics of Korea and we tried to show British Columbia a lot of the modern—

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Is it the hope of the Korean government to export these entertainers?

[Mike M. Suk]

No, it isn't, but I'll just go back to Ms. Grewal's question about how we could interact with each other by having Korean products showcased at our festival, having Canadian products showcased at our festival, and having interaction there. I think the festival does more at the grassroots level to educate Canadians of Korean descent who have lost the language, lost touch with their culture, to kind of reconnect with their culture, and also make alliances with other smaller ethnic minority communities. Hopefully, these people can be the liaisons between business—

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

You don't make money with the festival, you mentioned.

[Mike M. Suk]

No, I do not.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Do you not need help from the Korean government to send products or entertainers?

[Mike M. Suk]

This year we did have some help from the ministry of tourism and sport of South Korea to send a 20-member tae kwon do team, the official tae kwon do demonstration team, but this is all community-based, based on donations, a few corporate sponsors, and the city stepping up to the plate.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Okay, because there's nothing in the free trade agreement to promote culture. I think it's something that we sometimes ignore, but there's potential. There's a small Korean community in Montreal, not huge, but you should probably consider taking that eastbound, so you make it a two- or three-week type of South Korean festivities so that it highlights what Canada is all about. I think that's what your job would also be in trying to help South Korean culture become more dynamic across the country.

Just a quick question, Mr. Lindsay. Who's your competition right now in South Korea? It wouldn't necessarily be Europe or the United States that already have free trade agreements with South Korea. Am I correct?

[David Lindsay]

Yes. As I said in my opening remarks, there is about $6 billion worth of forest product trade that goes to South Korea. I haven't done the breakdown, but as you can imagine New Zealand, Indonesia, Russia, and all the countries around the Pacific Rim would have a part of that market. So it's a global—

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

You would have the Nordic countries probably competing and they would be part of—

[David Lindsay]

Yes, it's a global marketplace. We're all in competition. Brazil is growing as a competitor.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Your tariffs would only go down, what I was reading was about 3%, so it's not a major—

[David Lindsay]

We've got a range of them up to 10%. Some are 5%, some are 8%, and some are 10% depending on the type of—

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

That would offer you a competitive advantage?

[David Lindsay]

That, plus a modest Canadian dollar, plus a little bit of market promotion. It's a globally competitive environment, so we need all of those.

A part of the trade agreement that doesn't get talked about a lot is agreeing to engineering standards and phytosanitary standards. Making sure we're science-based and engineering-based in how we're getting our products approved in markets is a big part of the free trade deal as well. It's not just tariffs.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Good point.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Randy Hoback]

Mr. Richards.