If someone from Taiwan comes to Canada and claims that the accord with China apples to him, would we agree?
I don't know. We would perhaps have to ask a lawyer since this pertains to Canada's tax regime.
I can say, however—to repeat some of what Mr. Houlden said earlier—that the government of the People's Republic of China has no control over Taiwan. So if we go to Taiwan and say that we want to apply an accord that we have already signed with China, the Taiwanese authorities would say that it is out of the question.
As a result, if we want to remove the tax burden applicable to Canadians who do business in Taiwan, we have to conclude an accord with the Taiwanese authorities. Similarly, Taiwanese people who travel to Canada arrive at our borders with a Taiwanese passport and not a passport of the People's Republic of China. This is a question of both the facts and the law.