International Trade committee  I can add to that, then. To pick up on what my colleague from Agriculture Canada was saying, in order to participate in the importation of butter and other TRQs, you have to meet the terms and conditions of an import licence, and one of those is that you're active in the dairy sector.

International Trade committee  If I could finish the other components...?

International Trade committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. There are other components regarding the ability to import. We allow provisions for new entrants, people who are new to the sector, who may be interested in doing that. It's not just producers and processors who have imported in the past. All of the terms and conditions are available on our website—

International Trade committee  Would it have a negative effect on supply-managed producers? I can't think of one off the top of my head, but maybe I'll ask if my colleagues from Agriculture can think of any.

International Trade committee  As I mentioned in some of my opening remarks and in answers to other questions, I think it is quite probable that this would have an impact on some of our export sectors. In any negotiation, other countries will be looking to shrink the negotiating pie, as it were. They would look at key export areas of Canada and look to take them off the table as well.

International Trade committee  The CPTPP, as you folks are well aware, is already in place. It has been agreed to by the CPTPP members. Anyone that wants to accede to it—and that would include the United Kingdom and the U.S., since they are not party to the agreement—would have to accept the terms and conditions as they are, and that includes the market access conditions.

International Trade committee  It would depend. That would certainly be part of the negotiation in terms of what they would put on the table. Again, they have not asked or requested to join the agreement. Different people think different things about whether they will or they won't. The only country that has put forward an application is the U.K.

International Trade committee  On country of origin labelling, we did win a WTO case on that. We do retain the right to retaliate if the United States were ever to implement something that was offside from the WTO commitments. We could implement that rather quickly, if need be.

International Trade committee  I wasn't directly involved with the broader Canada-U.S.-Mexico negotiation at that time, but my understanding is that we certainly did start with the broadest possible negotiating objectives, including trying to deal with softwood lumber in some way, shape or form, as well as trying to deal with trying to negotiate a government procurement chapter in relation to the buy America provisions.

International Trade committee  Thank you for the clarification. No, what I'm saying, in fact, is that they were part and parcel of the broader dynamics of the negotiation. As I said, I wasn't there, so I can't say specifically that the United States ever said “no softwood lumber”. I'm saying that when we started, we started with 100% of the issues on the table and then narrowed them down.

International Trade committee  Maybe I'll turn to my colleague from Agriculture Canada for that answer.

International Trade committee  Madam Chair, maybe I'll start and then pass it over to my colleague from Agriculture Canada. Canada and the United States have different systems by which we get our mandate out and they get their mandate out. I would just note off the top, in terms of Canada vis-à-vis the United States, how the review and oversight of the trade agreements takes place before they are launched.

International Trade committee  I'd be happy to elaborate on some of those risks and what would happen in a trade negotiation if one were to be negotiating with not the full basket of items on the table. I highlighted it in one of my earlier answers, but I'm happy to flag it again. I think that as a trade negotiator you like to start the negotiation with as many items on the table as possible.

International Trade committee  Sure. Thank you, Madam Chair. If you look at the act itself, it really does set out.... It is an organizational statute that sets out in general terms what the powers and duties and functions are for the ministers. It does not have any specific policies related to what the Minister of International Trade, the Minister of International Development or the Minister of Foreign Affairs ought to be doing.

International Trade committee  Maybe I can start and then turn to my colleague from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. As I mentioned in my remarks, the intent of the bill is consistent with the long-standing Government of Canada policy to defend the integrity of the system. As I mentioned in my previous answer, whether it was with respect to the CUSMA negotiations, the TPP negotiations, the CPTPP negotiations or the CETA negotiations, it was deemed necessary by the government of the day to provide some concessions to our various trading partners in order to finalize each free trade agreement.