Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much for coming before us today.
I want to come to the issue of dispute settlement in this proposed agreement. We had testimony last week from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade on how the dispute resolution process would work. Essentially, quoting from one of the witnesses who spoke last Wednesday, “An investigation is made and a report is written that can lead to ministerial consultation.” If the problem is not solved, a dispute resolution panel is formed. They study the cases. If there is non-compliance, the panel “...can then report and then impose financial penalties of substantial amounts to be deposited into a cooperation fund. Then that money can be used to resolve the matter at hand.”
As far as we understand from that testimony last week, the dispute settlement mechanism would function exactly the same way for commercial disputes and non-commercial disputes, such as human rights, for example. Human rights is a major concern in Colombia, given the fact that another trade unionist has disappeared, even since last Wednesday. The head of the public servants union of Bogota has disappeared.
So is it correct to say that the dispute settlement mechanism functions exactly the same way for commercial disputes and non-commercial disputes, such as gross violations of human rights?