International Trade committee  I'll be speaking first about the agreement more generally and then Mr. Bubber will join in on the financial sector stuff.

International Trade committee  He is part of the presentation.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for this opportunity to provide comments on the Canada-India comprehensive economic partnership agreement or CEPA. I'm Cam Vidler, director of international policy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, which is one of Canada's most representative business o

International Trade committee  To clarify the question, I think our position is that it's important that certain issues and barriers identified by Canadian business are included in this agreement. We don't want a symbolic agreement. We want an agreement that will increase real market opportunities for Canadian

International Trade committee  I think there's the example of the government's visit, with Prime Minister Harper as well as Minister Fast, and several other senior government leaders, including a very large business delegation. That trip was in early November. Those are the types of measures we're speaking o

International Trade committee  I'm sorry, I don't quite understand the question.

International Trade committee  I think increased political engagement, or in fact sustaining the level of political engagement that we have seen so far, would be first. Export Development Canada and the trade commissioner service have rapidly expanded in the market over the past couple of years. We would like

International Trade committee  I have been a member of two parties in my life—

International Trade committee  They are the Liberals and the Conservatives, and I won't tell you which one I am in right now.

International Trade committee  In some cases, they do stimulate direct exports. For instance, there would be Bombardier's operations there, and there is a lot of local manufacturing in India, but it would be using a lot of imported parts from other markets, including Canada, which supports Canadian jobs here.

International Trade committee  That's a very important point. It's one of the first things that comes up when you talk to Canadian businesses that are doing business, or looking at doing business, in India. There are a lot of different ways we can address that. Let's look at it at a collective level policy-w

International Trade committee  The SMEs I think are more likely to face direct risks as they're doing business there. It's also more difficult. The costs they face to get themselves into the market are higher, so we have to look at different support mechanisms that can help them deal with those risks and those

International Trade committee  Yes, absolutely.

International Trade committee  I'd suggest that Mr. Bubber—

International Trade committee  I had been, yes.