Mr. Chair, I will share my time with Mr. Rankin.
I have another quick question for the representatives of the Canada Revenue Agency.
In particular, I am interested in transfer costs. Open borders and our trade agreements have facilitated our transfers. I think that transfer costs really became part of the problem when the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed. That had previously not necessarily been the case. Regarding transfer costs, the problem is that agreements place very little focus on that issue.
That brings me to an even bigger issue. I'm talking about the fact that we negotiate free trade or trade agreements with various countries while placing very little importance on taxation problems between the countries. I am thinking of the agreement signed with Panama. That led to a number of issues my colleague Mr. Côté raised.
So free trade agreements are negotiated, and very little emphasis is placed on taxation. Afterwards, we try to use a convention or a tax information exchange agreement to catch up.
For instance, we signed a trade agreement with Panama. We are currently negotiating a tax information exchange agreement. Isn't that the reverse of the order we should follow in terms of procedures and methods? I'm asking you the question now because it seems that we are always catching up, while we should be addressing the issue during trade negotiations. My question is for Mr. McAuley and Mr. Ernewein.