International Trade committee  The office of the chief economist at DFAIT does quite a lot of econometric work to try to quantify the value of trade agreements by measuring and estimating the impact of removing tariffs, but frankly, it's quite difficult to try to come up with a quantitative value on creating stability with respect to a regulatory regime, so there isn't a quantitative assessment of the value.

International Trade committee  There have been public expressions of support from the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, from the CCCE, from the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, from the Canada China Business Council, and the list goes on, including a number of the larger companies that have investments in China now.

International Trade committee  No, it doesn't subject provinces to any claims. The federal government is responsible. The federal government would be accepting all obligations.

International Trade committee  I think that the Canadian business community considers this to be a significant deal and an important one for business interests.

International Trade committee  I think I said in my opening statement that this is an important milestone in the Canada-China relationship.

International Trade committee  Well, I should clarify that it wasn't 18 years of negotiation. We're not that slow.

International Trade committee  Yes, it has been 18 years since we started, but there were large gaps when we were not actually negotiating because China was focused on its obsession with the WTO.

International Trade committee  It was picked up again in 2004, yes.

International Trade committee  Well, with all due respect, I think it's not appropriate for an official to respond to a question about what the appropriate—

International Trade committee  No, the agreement has an initial period of 15 years, at which point it could be terminated on one year's notice. It would thereafter continue to apply for a further 15 years only for those investments that were made during the initial period.

International Trade committee  Well, that's assuming it's made at the start of the period.

International Trade committee  Just to be fair, we're talking about a scenario in which a Canadian investor is suing the Chinese government for some action happening in China.

International Trade committee  The Chinese are reserving the right to carry on those proceedings in private.

International Trade committee  The Canadian public's policy objective is to ensure that when a measure in Canada is challenged, the process be fully transparent. We can guarantee that.

International Trade committee  Thank you. I think it comes back to the substantive obligations in the treaty. It is the obligation to provide national treatment once an investment is established, but certainly there's an MFN obligation in establishing an investment. There is an obligation not to expropriate Canadian assets once they're in the market and, if they are expropriated, to pay fair compensation promptly.