Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'll only take nine minutes....
Thanks to all three witnesses for being here today. I have three questions I am going to ask Mr. Sinclair, and I have one question for Mr. Woo and Ms. Baron.
Mr. Sinclair, you raised real concerns around TRIPS. I know that you are somebody who has followed with a great deal of expertise the whole issue of intellectual property. We had concerns raised in Canada about extended patent protection and intellectual property rights and how that adds additional costs to the health care system, while fueling what is essentially the most profitable industry sector in North America, which is the drug industry.
I would like you to come back to the issue of what this could mean for access to drugs and to costs in our health care system and other health care systems outside of Canada. I would like you to come back and comment in a little more detail there.
Secondly, the only reputable study we have on job loss shows about 33,000 net jobs lost in Canada, particularly in the electronics industry, machinery, transport equipment, metal products, plastics, and rubber--in British Columbia, a net job loss of 1,000 jobs. I would like you to comment on that particular study, which is taken from StatsCan figures and Industry Canada figures. Is that credible? Should we be concerned about any deal that would lead to tens of thousands of net jobs? What country would sign an agreement that would lead to net job loss?
Thirdly, on the whole structure of our current free trade agreement, we know that since 1989, two-thirds of Canadian families have lost in real terms. They are earning less now than they were in 1989, which is a failure rate that only the Conservatives would find interesting. What are we doing wrong on our whole approach on trade if we are signing these agreements that have implications far beyond trade and where, in the bottom line, we failed for two-thirds of Canadian families?
Then, for Mr. Woo and Ms. Baron, what are the alternatives to this trade agreement? If this trade agreement is so problematic and we've had some concerns raised even here today, should we not be investing more in publicizing Canadian products and services? Should we not be looking at other alternatives to build on our relationship with Korea, given that this agreement seems to be well off track?
I'll start with Mr. Sinclair.