International Trade committee  That's a tricky one. The definition of a small and medium-sized enterprise varies. In Germany a $2-billion or $5-billion company is still considered an SME, whereas in Canada it's generally much smaller. Typically, SMEs don't have the resources to participate as aggressively in

International Trade committee  I believe there was a study report issued late last year. If my memory is correct, the Europeans had done a bit better. They had about a 10% or 11% increase in trade. Canada had about a 6% or 7% increase. I'd need to check, but I believe the numbers are roughly those. It is wort

International Trade committee  Yes, it's just to say that we cannot close chapters on rules of origin. We spent almost two years negotiating rules of origin and going through lists with which services would be covered and those types of things. This is a very lengthy process. The idea that we're going to be ab

International Trade committee  It is worth remembering that this is largely on the U.K. The U.K. made the decision to leave the European Union, so the U.K. is the demander in all of these things, including their discussions with the EU and discussions with third parties like Canada. In my view, the U.K. hasn'

International Trade committee  These are the key answers to the question, so if you don't want to hear that, then….

International Trade committee  When you posed the question, the screen froze, and I didn't hear it, but I'm assuming you want to know about the prospects for a Canada-U.K. agreement. Is that correct?

International Trade committee  Generally speaking, I agree with Claire's remarks with regard to having an ambitious agreement. I think we need to have something there. In my opening remarks, I said that I thought there was going to be a hard Brexit. In fact, if I'm being blunt, I think that the U.K. political

International Trade committee  It's nice to be here today. Hello to everyone. I'll keep my remarks brief, to five minutes, and focus primarily on the United States and the United Kingdom. First, broadly, the primary impact of COVID-19 on international trade is the continued rise of the sentiment “my country

International Trade committee  That's digging down a bit. It goes beyond what my mandate is at the Canada Europe Round Table for Business. What we really would see, for instance, is larger businesses working with community colleges and educational institutions with regard to apprenticeship programs and that t

International Trade committee  They also have supplier lists where SMEs can register and can bid to be suppliers to these companies. There are things happening, but I don't know that I can really answer the full scope of what they're doing.

International Trade committee  I don't know whether that is the case, but remember that generics were once research-based products. Essentially they're copying products that were innovative; you thus can't have generics without innovation to begin with. By increasing intellectual property protections, you incr

International Trade committee  At the event we had today, one of the speakers was from the Wood Pellet Association. In the U.K. alone they're exporting, I think, up to $300 million a year. There's all kinds of it in the forestry sector. All the tariffs will be below zero upon implementation of the agreement. Y

International Trade committee  Absolutely. The other issue with regard to mining is it's not just about getting the products into the European market. It's also about ensuring that they're not caught up in technical barriers to trade or caught up in a regulation that is capricious or that is not based on soun

International Trade committee  We have economic development agencies that are basically arms of municipal government, and they exist for a reason. Government has a role in this as well.

International Trade committee  That's sort of a billion-dollar question. I'll start with one thing. Small and medium-sized enterprises probably are not going to be the ones who are going to take advantage as direct traders and ambassadors between Canada and Europe in a continental relationship. You're going