Madam Speaker, like my colleagues who already spoke on the various amendments now before us, I am pleased to give my views on amendments 1, 2, 6 and 7. With your permission, I would like to start with amendments 6 and 7, proposed by the hon. member from the NDP.
With respect to amendment 6, I must first say that we subscribe to some of the principles underlying the amendment itself. However, we believe that certain provisions of this amendment will make the World Trade Organization's decision-making process much more cumbersome.
Consequently, we have some difficulty supporting this amendment. We agree particularly on the principle that the changes to be made to provincial legislation must be considered, along with the provincial areas of jurisdiction affected by implementing the Uruguay Round agreement.
I would like to point out to my colleague that we presented an amendment which will require the government to take into account the provisions concerning provincial areas of jurisdiction. So I respectfully invite him to support our amendment instead of his, because his amendment will make the World Trade Organization's decision-making process considerably more cumbersome, as I said earlier.
As for amendment 7, requiring the minister to report twice a year on the state of negotiations on the labour, social and environmental aspects of trade relations, we agree on this principle, of course. However, I repeat that we proposed an amendment which addresses this concern. I regret to inform the hon. member that, during the work of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International trade, our colleagues on the government side were not very receptive to the idea of having only one annual report on the implementation of the Uruguay Round agreements by our main partners, particularly the United States.
I see that the amendment moved by the hon. member of the New Democratic Party, which suggests not only one report but two of them, has even less chance of being approved by members on the government side. Consequently, I would invite him, so that we can be sure that this point will be accepted, to support our amendment, which seeks only one report every year.
Before I go any further, may I draw your attention to the fact that, once again, we do have not a quorum. On the government side, we only have the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of International Trade. So, Madam Speaker, I would ask you to rule on the quorum.
And the count having be taken: