I said that Canada had managed to ensure compliance with commitments regarding international trade, and that is somewhat true. However, it should be pointed out that the whole world had called for theses changes and assurances. Canada's commitments under NAFTA, the WTO, or particularly the Government Procurement Agreement under the WTO, are less complete than they are in the case of other countries. The fact is that the provinces, and in the U.S., the states, did not make any commitments. We did not get that from the United States. This was the decision made by the provinces of Canada at the time, because they were trying to get some concessions from the U.S. concerning the Small Business Set-Aside Program. The United States actually had an exclusion for its assistance program for small and medium-size businesses. The provinces were also complaining about the Buy American programs that were already in place at the time. Since the Americans were not making any concessions about these procurement programs, the Canadian provinces were not prepared to make any commitments. It is true that others countries that signed the procurement agreement have greater protection than Canada does. This is particularly true at the domestic level.
On March 10th, 2009. See this statement in context.