I thank the honourable member for his question. Merci beaucoup, Monsieur Blais.
I have just gone through this, but I will have to go through it again. When I came here six or seven years ago, on several occasions in the House of Commons the issue of WTO negotiations was raised. The same stuff that was talked about then is being talked about now. Agricultural and non-agricultural issues were raised. At least five or six years ago, concerns were raised about fishery subsidies, employment insurance, small crafts harbours—the same things that are here right now. They then died, I guess, in the last few rounds or discussions. Fisheries didn't seem to draw much attention, even though it was part of the overall negotiations. The issue was raised again this past November, when the chair put forth a draft document to raise issues for discussion.
If you look at the document, the issues we're talking about here in relation to what they call fishery subsidies are bracketed—they are for discussion and discussion only. Immediately there was an outcry from a number of WTO countries, including ourselves, saying, “Forget it, it's not going to happen. You've gone way overboard.” We're trying to prevent overfishing and illegal unregulated fishing. We're trying to prevent countries that have no connection with the fishery from building and subsidizing entrants who go out there and rape, etc. A number of countries have come together to put an end to that kind of fishery. The fishery of the future will have to be one that's substantiated and built on solid biomasses. We have to make sure the fisheries are sustainable and properly prosecuted.
We have no problem with that; we've been pushing for that.
In November, the chair came up with this draft text listing subsidies. Among the subsidies were employment insurance, and whatnot. We immediately said that's not going to happen. In order for them to get anywhere on this there has to be consensus. There is no consensus. It's not only us. We can stop it by ourselves, but there is no consensus. We have lots of friends.
Basically that's where we are with it. As we move through the negotiating process it will be made quite clear that we and a number of other fishing countries will not support this and it will die on the order paper.