I'm John O'Neill, the chief of the trade rules section of the Department of Finance, and the lead negotiator for Canada in the WTO rules negotiations.
This morning Mr. Gauthier explained how the WTO process is evolving in the negotiations overall. Last week I explained how the process is unfolding in the rules negotiations. We are at a stage where the chairman of the group, in an effort to progress the group's work, issued a first draft text proposal late last year. This draft proposal was prepared and circulated by the chairman on his own authority--not by the WTO as an organization, and certainly not as an agreed text by members. The negotiating group has met three times since then, but we've not yet finished a first reading of the text proposals.
Most of what I had to say has been said by my colleague, so I'm going to skip pretty close to the end of my statement so there'll be more time for questions.
There's one clarification I would like to make to the statements I made last Tuesday. I stated quite categorically in an answer to a question that neither aquaculture nor inland fisheries was included in the proposed additional disciplines on fisheries subsidies. That's certainly our understanding of the text as it's written, and that's how we interpret it. The discussions to date in the group certainly support that position. But I would like to reiterate that this is a negotiation, and nothing is final until the final text. We will be vigilant in watching to ensure that aquaculture and inland fisheries do not sneak back into the text.
In closing, I would like to reiterate that this is a first-draft text. Canada and many other members of the WTO have asked the chairman to release a first revision as soon as possible to address the numerous deficiencies we have found in the text, including the inclusion of income support and port infrastructure in the proposed prohibition. Our work is not nearly complete, and we have a lot of work to do before any text can be put before ministers for a decision.
Thank you for your time and attention this morning.