International Trade Committee on March 11th, 2010

[Dany M. Carriere]

The temporary agreement and the GPA contain provisions governing cases where an entity enters into a contract with the government and one of the suppliers has questions concerning the entity. In such instances, Quebec would have an obligation to provide that information. I'm referring here to Article XVIII of the GPA.

[Claude Guimond, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

However, should a dispute involving a province arise, what authority would the WTO be able to exercise?

[Dany M. Carriere]

I don't think the WTO would have any authority.

[Claude Guimond, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

You're saying that the WTO would have no authority over such matters?

[Dany M. Carriere]

Should a dispute arise between Canada and the United States, the WTO would have the authority to intervene. In cases like this, a process is initiated. A panel is set up to hear from the various parties. The process is fairly complex. An entire chapter is devoted to this one topic in the WTO agreement. The GPA is part of that agreement.

[Claude Guimond, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

I have to say that this is all rather vague. My question concerned a state, or a province. We know that Canada, the federal government, is the signatory to the WTO.

[Dany M. Carriere]

Perhaps we could ask our colleagues who are more well versed in the dispute resolution process to send you some information about this in writing.

[Claude Guimond, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

More experienced from a legal standpoint? Fine then. Thank you.

The United States have always been a major economic partner of Quebec and Canada. This agreement was announced while Parliament was prorogued. While we believe the agreement has economic aims, for the most part, it has political objectives as well. What will an agreement of this nature bring us over an above what we have already have since trade was first initiated between Canada and the United States?

[Marie-Josée Langlois]

Since February 16 last, many Canadian companies in all sectors have been able to take part in projects that will be funded under the US Recovery Act, that is under the American stimulus plan.

Furthermore, as Dany mentioned, pursuant to a permanent section of the agreement, the Americans are committing to keeping their government contracts open, in line with the commitments they made under the WTO's Agreement on Government Procurement. These provisions did not exist before. Canadian companies can now invoke them.

[Claude Guimond, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Merci.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Very good. Thank you.

We're operating well today.

Thank you, Monsieur Guimond.

Thank you again to our witnesses. It was a tough one today to nail down, in some respects. I appreciate your offer to respond further with written responses to some of the questions from our committee members.

With that, we will conclude this portion of the program. I want to thank our witnesses for coming.

Before we leave, I do have some House business to attend to here very quickly. I'll give you one minute, and then we'll deal with that very quickly while our guests pack up.

We'll resume.

I have asked the clerk to circulate a motion. This is a routine motion that we do for each new assignment we undertake. This is essentially to adopt a budget for travel of witnesses. That's the main thing. We don't really know going in, much as is the case for other agreements, what the total benefit or the cost is going to be, because we don't yet know where all the witnesses are going to come from. We just did a general outline, an average of what it's been over previous commitments, and I have a motion:

That the Standing Committee on International Trade adopt a budget of $24,700 for inviting witnesses to appear in Ottawa for a study on Canada-United States Trade Relations.

May I have a mover of that motion?

So moved by Mr. Allison.

As well, we have distributed our breakdown, if that's of interest to members. Is there any discussion? It's pretty routine.

You had a question, Mr. Allen?

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

I did, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

I beg your indulgence because I don't come here that often. As much as it tends to be what we call in the business a “global budget”--it's $24,700 for something--do we at this particular moment in time have a sense of who we're calling? I understand there'll be folks who will submit names at some point. Do we have a sense of who we're actually asking now, or are we just simply trying to lay out a number to say we think this is kind of what we need to bring a certain number of folks? At this point we don't actually have a list of anyone we've decided on?

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Oh, yes, we do.

You've asked two questions there. One is whether this is kind of a global thumbnail of what it may cost. It's a reasonable guesstimate, because we've done this a lot.

To answer your second question, regarding whether we have designated or indicated who might be coming as witnesses, I have a list from Mr. Julian, for example, and a list from Mr. Keddy. We tend to try to balance each meeting with witnesses. So we're well on our way, and it looks as though we'll do at least two more meetings on this.

If you or Monsieur Laforest or Mr. Brison has any additional witnesses, send them along.

May I ask for a show of hands of those in favour of the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

We're on our way.

Thank you for that. We'll see you Tuesday.

The meeting is adjourned.