Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair.
Perhaps I could just take a minute to explain in a little more detail what kind of provisions I was referring to.
First I would say the most obvious one is that in many of our investment agreements, we explicitly exempt, as I mentioned, licensing of fishing and fishing-related activities from non-discrimination commitments. Those would be commitments related to national treatment and to most favoured nation treatment.
This includes Canada's main free trade agreements, such as the agreement with the United States and Mexico, the CPTPP and CETA. It also includes our modern FIPAs.
In practical terms, what this means is that Canada has full policy flexibility to accord preferential treatment to Canadian investors when licensing fishing activities without having to extend that same treatment to investors of other countries.
Second, our investment agreements allow Canada to give preferential treatment to investors of one country over investors of another country when that preferential treatment is something that we have negotiated in the context of an international agreement.
The first treatment that I mentioned is what we call “national treatment”. The second one is what we typically refer to as “most favoured nation treatment”. These protections have been developed and negotiated in the context of our trade agreements, in consultation with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, in negotiating trade agreements, we always consult with relevant departments and agencies as well as provinces and territories and stakeholders.
Hopefully, Mr. Small, I have answered the question you asked.