Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I would like to thank the committee and yourself for inviting me to share some ideas on the free trade agreement between Canada and Colombia.
I've been before the committee two or three times before, so I will actually keep my remarks at or under five minutes to allow more time for the questioning. I will keep my remarks, too, focused on the bill before the committee, Bill C-2, which focuses on a free trade agreement between Canada and Colombia. Should there, however, be questions or interest about proposed amendments or other ideas that the committee is considering, I'd be happy to discuss those, either in the actual or the hypothetical.
In terms of the free trade agreement with Colombia, as I've stated before, context is important--for Canada, Canadian competitiveness, jobs, and the situation of the domestic economy. We've seen since the breakdown of the Doha Round and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas negotiations an aggressive move by countries throughout this hemisphere to sign bilateral agreements. In that regard, Canada has lagged behind, unfortunately.
We currently have, in effect, five agreements that cover seven countries. Just within North America, the United States has 11 agreements--and is aggressively negotiating many more--that impact 16 countries. Mexico has 12 agreements and is negotiating more—we've heard recently that they're talking with Brazil—and their agreements cover 46 countries.
So even within North America, Canada is falling behind in terms of international trade competitiveness, yet the trade agenda continues. It's not as if the problems that the U.S. has had with the Colombia free trade agreement have prevented it from moving to other agreements, such as the trade preferences for the Pacific, or the TPP agreement, where the United States is looking at a new trade regime between countries that line the Pacific—Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, etc.—with countries of the Asian Pacific Rim.
So the trade agenda continues, and it continues aggressively. It's extremely important that Canada participate.
Our choice in participating is factored on two bisecting trends and two bisecting interests. One, in places where we have existing trade, we're facing competition...and also the intersection of countries that have an interest and a willingness to quickly negotiate. We've seen this in the case of Panama, where negotiations took three or four rounds, and in the case of Peru, which also moved to aggressively and quickly negotiate with us. We see that, too, in the case of Colombia.
So the reasons for us to be in Colombia are twofold: there are opportunities and it's important for Canadian competitiveness, and the Colombians have shown a willingness to negotiate.
In terms of the importance for Canada, you can look at it sector by sector, province by province. In agricultural products, Alberta has $60 million worth of exports to Colombia; Saskatchewan close to double this, at $117 million, and these are only wheat, barley, and pulses. Quebec is sending $40 million a year of machine parts, including flight simulators and autos; and Ontario, $67 million in similar products. Even in paper and cartons, Nova Scotia, with $23 million, has an important market for that province's paper and carton industry, the wood industry, which has been suffering lately.
Finally, let me note that there is obviously a strong business case for the agreement. Investment will benefit; trade will benefit. It's important for Colombians. You've had Colombian unions here. The flower exporters, I believe, were before the committee explaining the importance of the agreement.
It's important, therefore, that if one is looking to restrict trade with Colombia or to prevent this agreement, given the importance of jobs in Canada, given the importance of exports in provinces across this country, one would need a very good reason. Obviously the human rights situation in Colombia is of great concern, but for it to have an impact on trade with Canada, you would really have to make a strong and compelling case, or even any case, that the products we sell, the commerce in which we engage, has an impact on human rights in Colombia negatively or even positively. Despite the fine work that CIC has done, and others, we really haven't seen this link.
Let me just quote briefly Federico Guzmán. I suppose you know Federico Guzmán, a lawyer in Colombia. Federico was in Canada in February, speaking about an Amnesty International human rights report. He was on The Current. The broadcast is available online—another fine job by Anna Maria Tremonti.
On February 27, the first part of the broadcast, five minutes in—if anyone would like to go and check the tape—he was asked specifically by Anna Maria about the impact of trade between Canada and Colombia on human rights.
His response was interesting. He said there's no real impact between trade; the impact comes from large mega-projects in Colombia--and impacts on displacement and other issues that we've heard.
Anna Maria followed up and asked him if there were indications or any evidence of specific violations or involvement by specific Canadian companies. Mr. Guzmán replied that, no, as of yet there were not, but should there be any violations, well, then, the Government of Canada really needed mechanisms in place to deal with these, should they occur.
Again, if we're looking at an important potential trade market, if we're looking at jobs back home, we really have to look at preventing the hypothetical--with perhaps some regime to identify problems should they arise, but, as yet, we have not found evidence. And this is from someone speaking on the Amnesty International report in Canada.
Finally, the exchange at the beginning of the committee was really interesting--the idea of having witnesses come in, and the difficulty and the shortness of time, and hearing from Canadians who are concerned about this.
Based on that exchange at the beginning, I have an idea for the committee. While it's very convenient for us, even in short periods of time.... I had about 24 hours to respond, too. There's a report waiting on my desk that CIDA, or someone else, will kill me for not getting to them. Be that as it may, it's great to have the opportunity to walk down the street and come here.
Given the interest of Canadians across the country, perhaps it would be more interesting for the committee to go to places such as Kindersley, Saskatchewan, or Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, or Pointe-Claire, Quebec, to talk to people on factory floors, people who are trading with Colombia, people whose jobs and future employment are perhaps tied to this agreement, and ask them about the impact of their products--the beans they sell, the wheat they sell--on human rights in Colombia, and have an explanation at these plants, on these farms, and elsewhere about the work that the committee is doing.
Thank you.