International Trade committee  Thank you.

International Trade committee  I think it's probably too early to tell what the impact of the GMAP has been in terms of company exports. If those studies are in fact true—and I think they've been looked at by quite a few different experts—we would expect that the expansion of a trade commissioner presence in m

International Trade committee  I think it takes on some that have long been identified as barriers to entering foreign markets. By referring to the tools we have, the trade commissioner service, Export Development Canada, the Canadian Commercial Corporation, Business Development Canada—all of which are a big p

International Trade committee  Yes, I think the GMAP does address a lot of those issues, and certainly in the Indian market, I would say the whole range of issues I just mentioned apply, and perhaps apply even more acutely. The point that the chamber wanted to make with this report is not that the GMAP is ide

International Trade committee  Mr. Chair, I think we've learned that we can't rest on our laurels. Minister Fast has been very clear to say that he understands that. I like to use hockey analogies because they are so popular when we talk about trade in Canada. In the first period, if you look at the post-NAF

International Trade committee  Mr. Chair, I think the member makes a very interesting and important point here. The report that we did largely looks at what we can do to overcome some of the foreign barriers, but in the first few pages we do point out that there are a lot of things we need to be doing at home

International Trade committee  If I understand the question correctly, exchange rate obviously affects the competitiveness of Canadian products in the markets, particularly if there's a lot of Canadian value that's being produced and priced in Canadian dollars. That said, the high Canadian dollar of the past

International Trade committee  I think the significance comes through in that report. We give everybody a very warm and fuzzy feeling, as Canadians. As this committee has travelled, you've obviously experienced those feelings and seen how Canada can command a lot of respect when it travels around the world.

International Trade committee  I think it's important to start from the understanding that development aid has a fundamental overriding objective, which is poverty reduction in developing countries. That's essential. That shouldn't change. The idea of tying aid, saying we're going to help you out only if you

International Trade committee  I'd be happy to expand on that and make the clear distinction between what Export Development Canada does and what a development finance institution would do. The development finance institution would be looking not so much at financing exports, but financing private sector inve

International Trade committee  You could look at an infrastructure project in, say, a market like Senegal, where private investors may look at an opportunity. There's clearly a growing population. There are clearly people who would be using these projects, but political risks or counterparty risks with local p

International Trade committee  Because they would also have to price their risk at a point that would probably be prohibitive for the involvement of a private company.

International Trade committee  Mr. Chair, can I respond to that very quickly?

International Trade committee  I appreciate the points you're making there. I would just like to point out that this is not an uncommon practice at all. If you look at the International Financial Corporation as an arm of the World Bank, which Canada supports, it currently does that. If you look at the Overseas

International Trade committee  I don't think that we have a fundamentally different approach between the two governments. If we look at the so-called Team Canada, where Canada was going, the Prime Minister would go with a large delegation and try to bring the best of what Canada has. I'd like to reference, and