Thanks very much to all of you for being here.
I've been thinking about this agreement ever since we knew it was coming. We're here to look at the effects of the CETA, both positive and negative, on the agricultural sector, and we appreciate you folks being here to give us your feedback.
Also, it is more than just a trade agreement. If we look, for example, at what senior trade researcher Scott Sinclair of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has said, he has said:
It is a constitutional-style document that affects patent protection for drugs, foreign investor rights, local government purchasing, public interest regulation and many other matters that are normally decided by elected legislatures after public debate.
We've been told this by the government. It's a comprehensive agreement, and obviously we will have to balance the pros and the cons.
We know also that our dairy farmers, as a result of this, are going to take a hit, and the government—rightly so—has stepped in and said it would help them. We know that the cost of delaying the introduction of cheaper generics will be between $800 million and $1.65 billion, and once again the government has said it will offset the costs. So the taxpayer's dollar is going to help where they don't need help now.
As not only a representative of your association but a Canadian, there is one thing we have seen under NAFTA that is expanding into this agreement and others. It is something called investor-state rights, and the fact that there is the ability for foreign investors to sue our federal government because companies feel they are unjustly treated. Up until now, under NAFTA chapter 11, over $160 million of federal government money has been paid out to fight these cases. Both the European Parliament and the official sustainability impact assessment have questioned the need to include investor-state dispute settlements in the CETA. Some countries are looking at options. South Africa, India, Korea, Brazil, Australia, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador have decided to pull out—in other words, not include investor-state rights in any trade agreement.
As a Canadian and as a representative of your industry, what are your thoughts on this? Personally, in my opinion, it's not right for a foreign company to be able to sue our government because it may feel unjustly treated.