Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is a pleasure to be here this morning. Having listened to the first two presentations, I can safely say that we're onto some themes we all agree on.
Let me briefly speak to the issue from the perspective of the Chamber of Commerce. I think you're all aware that our organization is very much a broad-based business organization, including large businesses, small businesses, every sector of the economy, and all parts of the geography. Our focus as an organization--I think it's what's relevant, quite frankly, to this discussion--is on competitiveness and productivity, and that's where we should start the discussion. I noted that in June the trade minister started his speech with respect to International Trade Day that way, and I was encouraged by that. I think it's exactly the right context.
Competitiveness and productivity constitute the overarching issue for us as an economy. There are many components to it, and we can talk about many of them, but we focus on the trade and investment side. The two go together, as our first two presenters pointed out very well.
There is a context, though, when we talk about competitiveness and productivity in our economy. We also like to talk about it in terms that some people I think can understand a little more readily; we use the phrases “standard of living” and “quality of life” when we take it to that extreme. Whether you're talking about what you need to do in the next budget or what you need to do in terms of the next trade agreement that we're negotiating or what we're going to do in terms of domestic policy to support those initiatives, our standard of living in Canada is the issue here, and we should never take that for granted. That's why I think what you're doing today--thinking about Canada's trade policy--is worth doing.
That's the context for us and for our members.
I'll also just repeat that it is absolutely essential, in terms of thinking about policy, that you don't have an international policy that's separate from what you're doing domestically. We can throw those words out there, but they are very important in terms of what we should be doing on a day-to-day basis in thinking about trade and investment from a strategic standpoint.
My last point is to give you a quick sense of where we are as an organization. I'll do this with top-line priorities, because we have a chance to test this regularly with our members; at our annual meeting a few weeks ago in Saskatoon, we spent quite a bit of time talking about trade priorities because they're important to our members from across the country. Obviously our relationship with the United States and our relationship inside North America still remains, for our members, at the top of the heap, and we can talk about that further.
We have deep disappointment with respect to where we are on multilateral negotiations in terms of Doha. I don't think a country like Canada should be other than deeply disappointed with what's going on, because, quite frankly, multilateralism is our best option as a country, and the fact that we're deeply mired in this stoppage at the WTO is a big concern to us.
Because we're talking about how important trade and investment are on a regular basis, it didn't take us long to make sure we want to stay focused on foreign investment protection agreements. These are vital and essential for our members across the country.
I'll stop there, Mr. Chair. Those are just some top-line remarks.