International Trade committee  I am not able to identify other sectors of the economy in which we are seeing the risk of negative implications. Even in the automotive sector, as I've said a few times now, I'm not saying that the impact would be negative. I'm just saying that concerns have been expressed from some stakeholders in that industry.

International Trade committee  My understanding is that it's exactly that. The modellers have to make some assumptions in order to be able to manage a simulation. You could take it to almost infinite levels of complexity, but at a certain point your model has to have some constraints, otherwise you can't make it manageable.

International Trade committee  Well, one of the points I made in my presentation is that if you're able to land an agreement with a country like Japan, it adds quite a bit to your credibility as a negotiating partner in the eyes of others. Remember that Japan competes with other countries in Asia within the Canadian market, so to the extent that we're engaged in a deal that may give Japanese suppliers preferential access in our market, that may create an incentive on the part of our countries in Asia to want to negotiate with us.

International Trade committee  It's a question that would be better put to the Japanese themselves. Through the negotiating process we'll develop a pretty clear idea of what their priorities are. I think they would be looking at areas in Canada that are still subject to tariffs. The subject has come up a number of times already this morning, but I think the tariff on automobiles would be a high priority for Japan.

International Trade committee  I'd rather not be put in the position of identifying what their negotiating priorities would be. I'm worried about what our priorities are.

International Trade committee  If you look at Japan's current exports, automotive and automotive parts products are a significant part of their exports. I talked about cars. On the parts side, though, I should say that the vast majority are also coming in duty free, because we don't put duties on parts that come in as part of original manufacturing.

International Trade committee  I'll start and Denis may wish to add some thoughts. These are very sensitive areas in Japan, and there's no question that this is going to be a challenging area of the negotiation. In each area there's a different mix of measures that are affecting the level of access. There's the tariff.

International Trade committee  We absolutely will be consulting very closely on an ongoing and sustained basis with provinces and territories as we negotiate with Japan. We expect that there will be a high level of interest from the provinces and territories in this negotiation. We have a variety of mechanisms within the department to consult with provinces and territories on trade initiatives.

International Trade committee  Thank you. It's a very good question. In fact, what has happened is that in December of last year the parties to the plurilateral government procurement agreement under the auspices of the WTO reached a new agreement that substantially expands the coverage we enjoy with all GPA countries, including Japan.

International Trade committee  That's not our intent. Our intent would be to proceed with both in parallel, even with the assumption that Japan and Canada were both admitted to the TPP, because at that point there could still be no guarantee that the TPP would conclude successfully.

International Trade committee  Yes, that would be a standard feature of our investment chapter.

International Trade committee  Do you mean with reference to beef specifically?

International Trade committee  I'll turn to Denis if he wants to add more to this. We have substantial export interests in a number of categories within the agricultural area. Japan is a huge market for Canadian pork producers, and we know that they are very excited about the prospect of a free trade agreement with Japan.

International Trade committee  The answer is yes.

International Trade committee  I don't see the same dynamic happening in this negotiation that would cause us to go down the same path in terms of model of representation.