International Trade Committee on July 31st, 2006

[Bill Reedy]

You asked me about how impractical this is. Of course, you have the issue of retroactive duties and how you price to your customers, but more than that, the way this deal is set up, there is no margin for the companies. So how is it practical to run your business when you have no margin?

The export tax also takes the money away forever. At least in fighting the U.S. we have the hope of getting it back one day.

I'd ask questions about this deal such as these: It's so poorly negotiated; why is $500 the cap when $355 is the benchmark? Why don't we have no taxes, no exports, no duties over $355?

I want to leave time for other people.

[Jamie Lim]

Mr. Julian, you asked about the 20% reduction that I spoke of the last time I was here. BMO analyst Stephen Atkinson confirms that. He says you could easily see a further--and bear in mind how much has happened already--10% to 20% reduction over the next few years in eastern Canada.

Furthermore, and I think this is critical, value-added products like engineered wood would be taxed at full value of the product. He suggests that those jobs will go south, so we'll also see an export of high-paying, value-added jobs.

Also, concerning the loan guarantees, earlier it was suggested that the Government of Canada is going to ensure that our money is returned to us immediately--eight weeks--but that's eight weeks from when the agreement comes into force. Right now, we're looking at maybe October 1, so eight weeks means close to the end of the year.

We're also told that U.S. Customs must provide to the Government of Canada the interest rates, the complexities, of each of those transactions over the last five years. You can imagine the amount of information. That's going to take months and months to calculate and it might not be ready. So we might have a government that's ready, but we might not have the information, which is why we need an immediate low-cost to no-cost solution, such as loan guarantees, that could be implemented tomorrow, so that we're around to enjoy what the Government of Canada would like to implement, for which they would like to be the banker for the U.S. and give us our money.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you, Ms. Lim.

Mr. Julian, I've allowed you to go an extra half minute.

Go ahead, Mr. Eyking.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I know we can't have another round, but just on a little bit of a point of order, many of us at the original motion were under the understanding that we'd be done at 5 o'clock here today, and many of us around this table have flights. I'm suggesting, if we may, that we move on to the next set of witnesses so we can wrap this up in a timely fashion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

I have had several people make that point, and we don't want to have a table with MPs gone to catch their flights, so we will end this meeting now. It's just a little bit earlier, but we'll get a three-minute break and go to the last round. We'll sure try to wrap it up so you can catch your plane. I wouldn't want to interfere with that.

I'd like to thank you all very much for your presentations here today. I know it's not much time, but I do appreciate your presentations.

We'll adjourn this meeting, have a three-minute break, and then come back for the last meeting of the day.