International Trade committee  Certainly. As you know, Canada has huge strengths in natural resources, but also great strengths in manufacturing and higher value-added processes that in the goods space are known as intermediate goods, as you've described them. Great examples would be any complex piece of machinery, an airplane, a car, which can in fact traverse borders several times before the final product is created.

International Trade committee  Absolutely.

International Trade committee  The answer is yes.

International Trade committee  It's a very important question. We absolutely have given consideration to it. It's an incredibly complex area. For example, what would be considered excessive government intervention to set prices or essentially manipulate currencies? Specifically, would the U.S. quantitative easing actions over the last several years qualify?

International Trade committee  I'd just say three quick points. First, the tools that the government already has at its disposal, including Export Development Canada, Business Development Canada, and the Trade Commissioner Service, are absolutely essential. On those particular tools I'd suggest the development of Korea-specific plans.

International Trade committee  Mr. Chairman, committee members, thank you for this invitation to appear before the committee on trade to discuss the Canada-Korea FTA. Before I begin my remarks, please let me recognize the new chair, MP Hoback. I would also like to enter into the record best wishes to the former chair of this committee, MP Rob Merrifield, who retired from Parliament in September to become Alberta's representative in Washington.

International Trade committee  I would say that the economic diplomacy theme requires the business strategies of our Canadian firms, of all sizes, to be oriented towards growth markets. I know members of this committee travel widely in Canada in your constituencies and through your committee work. I would urge you to have one simple question that you ask all firms that you meet, which is, “What is your plan to go into new markets?”

International Trade committee  I think another member of this committee said that it's a practical way of doing business; it's a pragmatic policy. I would have to say that I find the supposition that we would have a firewall between our political and economic diplomatic resources to be unsophisticated and ultimately would not deliver on Canadian interests.

International Trade committee  First of all, I think it's ambitious and I like that. I like the fact that we have to get more aggressive about emerging market opportunities. I think that anything we can do on building relationships more broadly with Congress in the United States is important. Parliament and Congress relationships are incredibly beneficial; all party relationships and deepening relationships at the governor level, the state level, are also essential.

International Trade committee  No. My fundamental point is this: because of the primary relationship that our businesses have with U.S. customers, with the foreign affiliate presence and sales, with the investment that goes between our two countries, we have to get that relationship right. If that relationship is not functioning at its highest and most effective level, the global market action plan is not delivering on the opportunities that are available to Canadians.

International Trade committee  Absolutely.

International Trade committee  I think we have to do both. I think our trade negotiating teams are capable of doing both.

International Trade committee  Not only is it a good answer, I think it's an essential answer for the future prosperity of Canada. TPP holds out an opportunity with Japan. It also holds out the opportunity to refresh our relationship with the U.S. and Mexico. As you know, we're not renegotiating NAFTA. It's going to increasingly be outpaced by new generation agreements like the Canada-EU deal.

International Trade committee  Free trade agreements, as well as investment, do lead to improved job creation, export promotion, and investment. I would commend to you a Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development study on that very question.

International Trade committee  Mr. Chairman and committee members, thank you for the invitation to appear on the global markets action plan. Before I begin my remarks, let me tell you a little bit about our organization. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization composed of the CEOs of 150 leading Canadian enterprises.