Industry committee  The question is how you measure services, and that's where I didn't get a chance to go into much detail, but in regard to the U.S. Coalition of Service Industries—we provided you with a copy of their report—it's amazing what they can gather in terms of information based on how their census is organized and how the service-related questions are asked.

Industry committee  I certainly think that skilled labour would be an issue—training that labour and making training fluid. We listed those seven recommendations to try to strategically focus your attention on a number of areas. An additional area that I think a number of us touched upon is the whole issue of internal trade barriers.

Industry committee  I was simply going to add that I didn't try to make a perfect-case scenario. I tried to paint a picture that talked about huge potential gains. But you're absolutely right. Trade in goods and trade in services obviously occur on a two-way street; that's what trade is. I think some of the problems we're seeing in some of the older parts of our more traditional economy are in part linked to the ebb and flow of the globalized marketplace.

Industry committee  To the current question, I would support the level playing field at home. What we can perhaps think of sharpening our pencils on is our overseas trade and investment strategies. That is to say, perhaps there we can focus a little more like a sharp laser, to say, for example, in China, where are we competitive?

Industry committee  In response to the specific question, I see a great potential upside. If you look at our trade, which is obviously indispensable to the growth of our economy, and only 13% of our exports thus far are for services and 60% of those in the United States, I see a great upside for a lot of our service providers.

Industry committee  I was thinking that my time was running out so I might as well throw that in and bootleg it.

Industry committee  I talked about the quality of life in the sense of the co-relationship between the quality of a service sector and how it can improve the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector. And then I went one step further to have us think also, as we step back and look at our country, that the quality of services is also directly tied to the quality of life that one citizen or one country has.

Industry committee  If I may lead the parade—

Industry committee  —wearing another hat, which isn't on the table today, I certainly would echo the comments that laboratories now know no borders and that those genius discoveries can come as quickly from a laboratory somewhere in China or in India as they can from our own country or the United States.

Industry committee  If I can just complement that, the construction or the architecture that's done multilaterally on the services is quite different from how the goods and agricultural products are treated. In the first two, when the WTO, let's say, makes a decision to cut a barrier or a tariff, it applies across the board to all members of the WTO, whereas on the General Agreement on Trade in Services, when it was entered into, when it was first created, there was a fair degree of opposition from developing countries, because, quite frankly, they didn't understand the impact of this whole new services regime.

Industry committee  Is that addressed to my colleague?

Industry committee  I would also agree with your opening observation that services have been a bit of a hidden gem, and that probably goes for many other countries as well. Sometimes, from a public perspective, we're still seeing the old, more traditional economy—not to lessen the importance of that sector.

Industry committee  I would just like to say that while some of those sectors are going through some very difficult and trying times, it's not to segregate manufacturing, necessarily, from services. As we quickly pointed out, that OECD report quite tangibly noted that a better service sector can improve the efficiency, the effectiveness, and the competitiveness of manufacturing.

Industry committee  The third recommendation would be to try to facilitate a good WTO outcome. But I'll wait for the question and answer period to get into that.

Industry committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Canadian Services Coalition would like to thank you and members of the committee for their invitation this morning. In that regard, we have submitted a brief paper for the committee. I'll be speaking in terms of some overview remarks. I'm joined, as you noted, by Shirley-Ann George, who is the executive director of the coalition.