International Trade committee  I think our view is that in any negotiation the outcome has to be balanced and there should be some level of reciprocity. Now, as for applying this principle to specific industries, sectors, and chapters, I think you have to see what offensive and defensive interests we have at stake.

International Trade committee  To your point, I think that maybe not all the issues can be addressed by a free trade agreement, but I think the Canadian model, so to speak, of an ambitious free trade agreement would include commitments with respect to government procurement. For instance, in the negotiation with Europe, I think a government procurement chapter is being envisaged.

International Trade committee  There are two areas. More particularly for aerospace, my colleague mentioned the issue with tariffs and other duties, and we're faced with a similar situation with respect to our exportation of business aircraft into the Indian market. There's a number of charges being applied to the acquisition of business aircraft, including tariffs, duties, and value-added taxes, and excise taxes as well, and all these charges combined amount to a surcharge of 23% on our business aircraft.

International Trade committee  I will try to be concise. We have been in India for 35 years, but of course our presence has expanded over time. Also, I should note that on the rail side Bombardier grew a lot by acquisitions. Some of our operations date back from the companies we acquired in Europe, but with operations in India like Adtranz on the rail side.

International Trade committee  I will make some comments on that. In my introduction, I referred to an unprecedented period of research and development for Bombardier on both the rail and the aerospace sides. The bulk of the design and engineering work in all our new aircraft programs that I was referring to is being undertaken here in our operations in Canada.

International Trade committee  Mr. Chair and members of the Standing Committee on International Trade, it's a pleasure for me to be here with you today and to have this opportunity to share with you Bombardier's perspectives on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with India. I have a prepared statement that I'm going to read, and I certainly look forward to the discussion and questions later.

Transport committee  To some extent, yes.

Transport committee  I think the flip side of the coin is the technology push approach as well, so programs to support, particularly, demonstration projects. I think there's a funding gap here in Canada for that segment of the innovation spectrum. Our view is there needs to be a balance between the two, and certainly there's scope in Canada to use government procurement more as a tool to achieve some innovation objectives.

Transport committee  Well, I mentioned a figure that we can release. It's the $2.7 billion investment in our Canadian operations in the last five years. But I'm not counting this year, 2012; I'm counting from 2007 to 2011, so—

Transport committee  That includes R and D, but that also includes investment in tangible and intangible assets in Canada.

Transport committee  There is something I can share with you. In the last three years, just on R and D, $1.6 billion of investment has been made, but that's not only in Canada, that's across the board for Bombardier, rail and aerospace combined. That's the extent to which I can share the figures.

Transport committee  We do both. We have partnerships in place with a number of universities here in Canada, if you talk about—

Transport committee  It depends on the type of research. Maybe Paul can add to that. When we're working on a product like an aircraft, for instance, a lot of the design engineering work would be done in-house, with the support of suppliers, because in the aerospace sector we're moving towards a risk-sharing partnership model, where our key suppliers also take on some of the design responsibilities.

Transport committee  Yes. In terms of collaboration with universities, the research and development programs could be at different stages. Maybe in some cases we're doing research less close to commercialization, but for a company like Bombardier it's always with a view to commercializing those technologies.

Transport committee  I would just like to add two short comments. Bombardier has the technology for high-speed trains. China has a project where trains will reach up to 360 km/h. Italy has a similar project where trains will reach that same speed. In Canada, as my colleague said, there is room to optimize the existing infrastructure and increase the speed, but without reaching 350 km/h, because that would require a separate network.