International Trade committee  Thank you, Chair Richardson and honourable members, for the opportunity to appear this afternoon to discuss Bill C-46. The Canada-Panama FTA is in the best economic interests of Canada. The free trade agreement that has been negotiated on behalf of Canadians is comprehensive and of high quality.

International Trade committee  Just in the question and answer session, Mr. Chairman.

International Trade committee  Mr. Murphy, fewer than 30% of Americans currently have passports. A much higher percentage of Americans have a driver's licence. So the thinking—which we strongly supported through our members of the North American Competitiveness Council—was that under the western hemisphere travel initiative, there should be at least one other piece of documentation that would be acceptable for travel between Canada and the United States.

International Trade committee  I'll let my three colleagues, who have been primary speakers, comment. But I can certainly say you have raised a very important point. This is a new team in Washington, and they have yet to put in place their undersecretaries. There's a new cabinet and a new President. We have heard time and again that Canadians need to go down there and educate, educate, and communicate.

International Trade committee  Mr. Julian, just to follow on David's comments, we were on the record and strongly supportive of the Canada-U.S. enhanced representation issue that was initiated several years ago. Are more resources required? We supported more resources being applied to the Canada-U.S. relationship.

International Trade committee  Sure.

International Trade committee  Mr. Cannis, this is a very important question. We do need to add that President Obama's cabinet actually has two former border leaders as senior members in his cabinet. One is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the other is Janet Napolitano. Janet Napolitano has indicated that she wants to learn about the northern border; she knows most about the southern border.

International Trade committee  Again with respect, we had an opportunity. The Americans did suggest the idea of perimeter security in the early 2000s. We did not go down that route. At the time that idea was before us all. It was an idea we all considered. We recommended it as a business group to the government; we did not go down that route.

Foreign Affairs committee  There is a Pacific gateway initiative that has been under way for a couple of years. It has connected the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert further north, through the Prairies and into the U.S. Midwest. There's also an Atlantic gateway initiative that is under way to develop and enlarge the port of Halifax.

Foreign Affairs committee  Just as a brief additional comment to Mr. Plourde's excellent response, it seems to me that regionally—in the Pacific northwest between the provinces and states, in the U.S. midwest, in the east between Quebec and New York State and Quebec and other states—there already is tremendous collaboration.

International Trade committee  The Americans don't have a FTA with EFTA. We will have that, subject to approval, of course; and then hopefully we'll have a deal with the EU, which will make it very attractive for EU enterprises to invest in Canada as a base for a North American platform.

International Trade committee  If I may add, Mr. Holder, we've been talking a lot about trade but we haven't talked enough about investment. We have a positive investment account with respect to the EFTA countries. We have more investment from the four EFTA countries than we have invested in those countries. And I would say to you that if we were to not ratify this deal, that balance could be affected.

International Trade committee  As well, we'd like to be able to come back in three years and argue the case for revisiting the EFTA and expanding it to include intellectual property, services, and investment provisions. We will probably have a long list to bring to this committee on making improvements and expanding upon the EFTA or building on the EFTA to make this a full-fledged economic partnership agreement in the broadest comprehensive sense.

International Trade committee  If I may say, those are great points, sir. I just want to add that this discussion on shipbuilding has been very much a defensive discussion. There's nothing wrong with being a little more offensive in our discussion. And to Mr. Garneau's excellent question and to your comment as well, there is nothing wrong with engaging our trade commissioner service to go out there to those four countries and work on behalf of our shipbuilding industry to get more contracts.

International Trade committee  Thank you. I just want to say, Mr. Chair and Mr. Julian, the following. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives is an organization, yes, that's made up of 150 chief executives of some of Canada's largest enterprises and of chief executive officers and entrepreneurs. But one of the unique aspects of the organization is that one of the requisites is that the CEOs who come must contribute to the organization and to the priorities of the organization.