Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, an arms trade treaty was first proposed formally in 2009, when the UN General Assembly passed a resolution mandating negotiations on a legally binding international treaty to set common international standards to regulate the import and exp

Foreign Affairs committee  Certainly, many of our allies understand that the purpose of the ATT is to target bad people—let's just say, very generally, terrorists, criminals, and human rights violators—and there has always been the implicit understanding that, look, this is not meant to target legitimate,

Foreign Affairs committee  No. Initially it was identified by Italy and Japan, which felt that this was important to them as well. We were just more active in exploring options to achieve this goal.

Foreign Affairs committee  I hope you're not mistaking goals with approaches, because the goal of focusing the treaty on impeding the trade to terrorists, criminals, and human rights violators has been generally accepted and generally agreed on. It is about how that approach is to be achieved. The simple f

Foreign Affairs committee  The chairman has proposed as one of the criteria what impact that will have on corruption in the receiving country. Certainly, we will support the inclusion of that criteria as the chairman has let us set it out, but—and my colleague here can answer this even better—one of the th

Foreign Affairs committee  First, let me point out that I'm not a lawyer, so if in a legal discussion I get it wrong, I apologize. But as our lawyers have explained it to me, by putting this text in the preamble...the preamble starts to give a defining character to the whole text. Once you get past the pre

Foreign Affairs committee  We report fully consistent with national and international laws. If you want the change in the national laws to have us report more, we'll abide by Parliament's decision.

Foreign Affairs committee  The language you're referring to refers to the internal trade, the domestic trade, and it has been very clear from the very beginning that the ATT is about the international transfer. It does not touch in any way domestic transfer or domestic ownership issues. What we're proposin

Foreign Affairs committee  Let me clarify. There is no distinction between civilian and military firearms. As for what our approach is now, rather than focusing on firearms, we are focusing on the user. So rather than trying to make a distinction about this type or that type, which is, quite frankly, dif

Foreign Affairs committee  I will turn it over to my friend here, who knows much more than I do.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's the minister's decision. You should ask the minister.

Foreign Affairs committee  We are able to identify what governmental officials are needed and we identify what governmental officials the minister may wish to consider. Then the minister decides who will be on the delegation.

Foreign Affairs committee  There's always a consultation process going on, yes, and we're always talking about what's going to be happening among us. Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  We meet at the discussions themselves, at the talks themselves. When I'm leading a delegation, I like to have a morning meeting every day, so—

Foreign Affairs committee  Or consult by e-mail.