International Trade Committee on Nov. 1st, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

We will begin. This is the 32nd meeting of the Standing Committee on International Trade.

Today we're pleased to welcome to our committee a parliamentary group for cooperation with Canada from the Republic of Macedonia.

We are going to have consecutive translation today; we weren't able to set up simultaneous translation.

I'd like to begin by introducing our guests. We will proceed, I would hope, with an opening comment from His Excellency, and then a general discussion of the committee.

First of all, we welcome Trajko Veljanoski, who is the President of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia.

He is accompanied by three members of the assembly: Mr. Andrej Petrov, Aleksandar Nikoloski, and Safet Neziri.

Helping us as well we have Svetlana Angjelovska, who is going to translate from Macedonian to English for us.

I am delighted that you are here. We will be interested in your comments. I understand you're visiting for about a week in Canada, mostly in this part of the world. Unfortunately, you were unable to attend in Calgary, but perhaps you will on a future visit.

This committee is comprised of members of all the parties in our Parliament. Our premier function, of course, is free trade agreements and the discussion of free trade, international trade with other countries around the world.

Currently on our agenda is a possible trade agreement with the European Union. Obviously we'll be interested in your comments on that just before we depart for a visit to Europe.

Our committee would very much like to hear from you. So at this point I would like to turn it over to His Excellency Trajko Veljanoski to give us an idea of the purpose of your visit and perhaps a little background on the current state of the union in Macedonia.

[His Excellency Trajko Veljanoski, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia]

Thank you.

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude on my personal behalf and on behalf of the whole delegation that is visiting Canada.

My delegation and I are visiting Canada on an invitation of Speaker Milliken.

It is a pleasure to meet you today, and I look forward to meeting all of the committees that are on our agenda.

As you have said, I am accompanied by representatives of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. They are all members of the assembly, but they also belong to different political parties.

Our goal is to represent the Republic of Macedonia in its best condition.

We would like to express our appreciation that Canada has acknowledged us under our constitutional name. And we also express our appreciation for all the assistance that Canada has been providing to the Republic of Macedonia.

The Republic of Macedonia is a very small but significant country in the Balkans, and such a little Balkan region is very significant to overall Europe. I think this is a good opportunity to share the experience.

I would like to underline that the Republic of Macedonia is making many efforts to promote the economic cooperation between these two countries. The state institutions aim to create very beneficial economic conditions for investment, for promoting competitiveness in order to gain a functional market economy, and to create a very beneficial business climate in the Republic of Macedonia.

One of the key goals for the Republic of Macedonia for 2011 is to increase economic growth and to increase competitiveness. Other key goals include: an increase in the business climate and the creation of equal opportunities for economic growth and development; an increase in foreign and domestic investments; and implementation of active policies for employment.

All these policies will influence the knowledge and the qualifications of the labour market. This will include the provision of safe and quality energy, the usage of renewable sources of energy, and increasing energy efficiency.

The improvement of the business climate is through the process of simplification of the business procedures and also through the improvement of the dialogue with the business community. All of this is the focus of state policies, and all of these measures aim to create good economic growth.

The trade cooperation between the Republic of Macedonia and Canada is in accordance with the rules and principles of the World Trade Organization, in which our two countries are full-fledged members.

Our trade in the past three years has been increasing, but there is a constant deficit on the Macedonian side. The trade exchange has been increasing, but certainly the large trade deficit remains on the Macedonian side, and we do expect that these conditions will change in the future.

We consider that some of the reasons for this insufficient trade exchange, certainly in all forms of cooperation, are the geographic distance, the expenses for transport in the final price of the product, and the incompatible standardization of Macedonian products. But there are also other conditions.

In order to improve the present conditions, we are proposing to organize economic presentations and promotions of the Republic of Macedonia as an excellent destination for investments, and to organize visits of Canadian businessmen to the Republic of Macedonia, which certainly will be a good opportunity for direct cooperation and contact between Canada and the Macedonian business department.

We would like to focus in the future on bigger cooperation with Ontario, economically your most developed province, in which there is also the largest Macedonian community.

I would like to also underline that because of the measures we have taken, we did not feel the economic crisis to such a degree as other European countries. There were minuses and deficits in other states; it was a great minus. The Republic of Macedonia, in my words, was in a positive zero condition. If we consider the world economic crisis in other states, we may say that this positive zero is a result of the good work of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia.

As I have said, we are interested in not only political cooperation, but economic cooperation between the Republic of Macedonia and Canada. Believe me, we consider Canada to be a friendly country to us.

We may be a small country, but we are maintaining the momentum for accelerating the date for the opening of accession negotiations. When we become a member state of the European Union, Canada will have a true friend inside the European Union upon whom they can rely for trade policies and trade cooperation with the European Union.

We hope that the Republic of Macedonia will soon become a full-fledged member of NATO. You are aware that we have a dispute over a name issue with our southern neighbour, and that is the problem and the reason why we are not a member of NATO. I will not go into politics now, but it is true that our membership in NATO will provide greater security for the Balkan region.

At the same time, this will be a very good and strong signal for bigger companies to invest in the Republic of Macedonia. I hope that companies from Canada will be leaders in this investment.

That is all I have to say. My delegation and I are at your disposal for any questions and discussion you have for us, particularly to provide an impetus for the future cooperation in the area of economy between these two friendly countries. Economic cooperation is the best cooperation for the citizens of both countries. Greater economic cooperation brings together the citizens of both countries. Life is not imaginable without politics, but the economy is the provider of benefits for all citizens.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you very much.

The committee has had a short briefing and was brought up to date on Macedonia in some respects, but that was very helpful.

You are to be congratulated on the progress in your economy since 1996, and on riding through the current world recession as well as you have. We share your thoughts that the current government is entirely responsible for progress through the recession. You may get different views as we go around the table.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[H.E. Trajko Veljanoski]

You are probably from the governing party.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[H. E. Trajko Veljanoski, Interpretation]

I too am a member of the governing party.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

The Macedonians are very perceptive.

We have the governing party at my right here, where they should be.

To varying degrees to the left, the further left we go, we have representatives of our Liberal Party, our Bloc Québécois, and our New Democratic Party.

We're going to begin questions today with the vice-chairman of this committee, from the Liberal Party, Mr. Cannis, who is a good Canadian. His name just sounds Greek.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Dobro, Mr. Chairman.

Let me welcome you, Mr. Chairman. I'm glad our chair said “varying degrees to the left”. That's very accurate.

Welcome to Canada. We're pleased that you're here. It gives us an opportunity to learn from each other.

It seems that your country, along with many other countries, has a problem, and that is the underground economy.

Because you are interested in signing a double taxation treaty with Canada, which is wonderful, I will say that this past June we voted to approve such a treaty with three countries, Turkey, Colombia, and Greece. Part of that legislation was addressing tax evasion and tax avoidance.

I am interested in what measures you are undertaking with your government to address this issue.

Should I ask my other questions, Mr. Chairman? I have just one more question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Sure, go ahead.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

First of all, as a Canadian of Greek origin, I will tell you this. I've said this before, and what you said really pleased me, that cooperation in the economy will help make a better society and a much more secure society. I too believe that. I stressed that when I spoke on an issue that had to do with Greece and Turkey. I also spoke on an issue that had to do with Greece and Macedonia. I believe the challenge, sir, is how do we resolve this issue of the name, as you said, so that indeed.... I firmly believe that NATO should be the direction for security, and so should the European Union be for you, because that will provide security, stability, and economic growth. And we then don't have to buy weapons; we can buy toys instead.

[H.E. Trajko Veljanoski]

I know one fact: when politics dominates, the economy has consequences. More politics means less economy in-between two states.

Regarding the first question on an agreement between the two states, we are working on double facilitation of taxation in both states. I believe that ratification of this agreement would provide a greater impetus for cooperation between the two states.

I would like to underline that fact that the Republic of Macedonia has very intensive cooperation on an economic level with Greece. There are many companies from Greece that have invested in the Republic of Macedonia. We do not mind this investment. We are pleased to see that a lot of investments are made in the Republic of Macedonia, because the citizens of any two states can only benefit from greater cooperation between them.

I mentioned before that we are very interested in accelerating the process of finding a solution to the name issue, in order to see the Republic of Macedonia as a member of both NATO and the European Union, and to focus ourselves on discussions and debates for improving and broadening economic cooperation. I can say that the citizens of the Balkan region are fed up with politics, conflicts, and riots. We have had a lot of conflict, and the citizens would like to see economic development and better prospects. I hope that we as politicians will provide this satisfaction for the citizens.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you.

Now we have a representative from our Bloc Québécois, who is also vice-chairman of this committee, Monsieur Laforest.

[Jean-Yves Laforest, Bloc, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Welcome everyone.

I will be brief. However, I do want to point out to you that the Bloc Québécois only represents Quebeckers in Canada's Parliament. It is a party that advocates independence for Quebec.

That said, the members of the Bloc Québécois serving on the Standing Committee on International Trade are of course working here in this forum to develop harmonious commercial ties between Canada and Macedonia and between Quebec and Macedonia. I believe this has always been so.

Besides, Quebec and its MPs are paying close attention to the growth of a fledgling country like Macedonia. This is important to us.

Mr. Chair, you mentioned earlier that you especially wanted to strengthen, or improve, commercial ties with Ontario. Everyone stands to benefit if commercial ties with certain regions of Canada, and with Ontario in particular, are maintained or improved. That's good, but there is nevertheless an important part...

I have looked at the figures on trade between Canada and Macedonia and I have noted that Quebec is an important part of this equation. Quebec also wants these commercial ties to be maintained. We are very supportive of your growth.

You talked about energy efficiency. Can you briefly describe to us your energy sources and tell us what improvements you would like to make to the system?

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I should have mentioned earlier, simply because of the time, that we have four questions and answers and a discussion. The normal nature of the committee is that we have witnesses appear and they respond to the questions of our members.

I just wanted to make it clear that's not necessarily the case today. It's a way of stimulating conversation, but I don't wish you to feel in any way obligated to answer questions you don't care to answer, or if there's not enough time to answer all of the questions, you can just pick the ones you want to answer.

[H.E. Trajko Veljanoski]

There is no problem. I am prepared to answer every kind of question.

I have mentioned the Province of Ontario with only one aim, that the major part of the Macedonian community is settled in an area of Ontario, the majority in Toronto. Certainly there are Macedonians who have had their homes in Montreal in the near past.

We are prepared to accept every investment that is coming from Canada, regardless of the province, and we are looking forward to every investment. We would like to ask you to provide an impetus for the investments from Quebec to the Republic of Macedonia. Certainly we will welcome every investment, and we do look forward to every future investment.

Regarding renewable resources, there are thermal centrals and there are also hydro centrals in the Republic of Macedonia. There is a big tender procedure going on at this moment for construction of the hydro centrals in the Republic of Macedonia. And if there is an interest, I would like to ask for your influence and impetus for investments from Canada in order to invest in this area of hydro central buildings.

I'm aware that there was a lot of interest from a big German company to invest in this area. In the Republic of Macedonia there are not many developed energy resources in order to export energy, but we do have resources for future development and construction of thermal centrals, hydro centrals, and other renewable resources. This is my serious offer towards Canada to compete in this tender procedure, because, believe me, the capacity from the construction in the near future of these hydro centrals will provide us the opportunity to export and to sell energy to other states in the region.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you.

I will ask now Mr. Julian to speak.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

I come from the Pacific coast of Canada, so my commute to come here is the furthest of all the members of the committee—about 5,000 kilometres.

In my community there is a small but important Macedonian community. We thank you for the links we have between Macedonia and Canada. The name of my community is Burnaby—New Westminster. Burnaby has about 100 different languages spoken within it. One is Macedonian.

I represent the New Democratic Party. We are a social democratic party, and in Europe we would be part of the caucus of the Party of European Socialists. We have 36 seats currently in the House of Commons.

I'm very happy to welcome you here with my colleagues.

I have two questions for you. The first is around your export diversification strategy. Your export is concentrated with four commercial partners: Germany, Greece, Italy, and Bulgaria. I'm wondering what strategies you have to broaden and diversify that export strategy.

We have a similar problem in Canada that is even more pronounced.

My second question is about travel to Canada. How did you find travelling to Canada? Was it difficult or easy to come to Canada, with your visa requirements and the process? I've certainly heard from my constituents that often travel to Canada is not as easy as it should be, given the links between our two countries.

It's a pleasure to have you here. Thank you very much.

[H.E. Trajko Veljanoski]

Thank you. I am pleased to hear there is a Macedonian community in your electoral district as well. There are Macedonian communities all over the world, and we are pleased that Macedonia is present all over the world. I would like to underline that the constitution of the Republic of Macedonia reads that the Republic of Macedonia is a social state, providing the social conditions for every citizen of the Republic of Macedonia.

Regarding the questions you have posed to me, we certainly are interested in welcoming major companies to the Republic of Macedonia, which will produce various goods in the Republic of Macedonia, and we will export these goods to other states in the region.

There is equal taxation in the Republic of Macedonia, many taxation facilitations, free economic zones, and the will to welcome major companies. We are aware that the Republic of Macedonia is a small market, but it is located in the centre of the Balkans and in the centre of Europe. Thus we can export to all the states in Europe.

As you know, there is a visa regime between the Republic of Macedonia and Canada. Even people who hold diplomatic passports or official passports need a visa, and that is the reason for the slowdown and the less dynamic processing of visits from Canada. But I hope this visa regime will be changed in the near future, that there will be free travel for people with diplomatic and official passports, because it is also important for people from the business community to have an opportunity to travel freely. Certainly we would like to see visas abolished in the near future for the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you. We're going to wrap up this side of it. I thank you for the time you've given us. This has been excellent.

We have one more round of questions, and that is from the Conservative side, from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade, Mr. Keddy.

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Welcome to our delegation from Macedonia.

I would echo some of the comments from my colleague from the Liberal Party, Mr. Cannis, who I think stopped his comments at the discussion of cooperation in the area.

We appreciate some of the strategic issues facing Macedonia here in Canada, but I certainly would also encourage you to continue to pursue the opening of Macedonia for trade. In particular, we're in the process of signing a foreign investment promotion and protection agreement between Macedonia and Canada.

Finally, because we are tight for time, my question to you would be this. You have a small country, with a relatively small population, looking for business opportunities and economic growth—in your words, I think you said “development, investment, and employment”. We see more and more, along with development, investment, and employment, the importance of sustaining the economy—of being environmentally friendly and environmentally sensitive. You mentioned the potential you have for renewable resources.

I think I've confused your interpreter a bit there. My question specifically is about the opportunity for renewable resource development in Macedonia and its importance strategically in the area, specifically for export to your neighbours.

[H.E. Trajko Veljanoski]

As I have previously said, the Republic of Macedonia is a small country, but investment in the Republic of Macedonia should be seen on a regional level, because investment in the Republic of Macedonia means easier access to further investments in the region.

There is a very low-priced labour market in the Republic of Macedonia. There is great potential regarding tax facilitation, flat taxes, a free economic zone in which we expect major companies to invest. We have ratified agreements with most of these states prior to the recession and the economic crisis. Unfortunately, these grand companies were influenced by the economic crisis; thus they postponed but have not abolished their investments in the Republic of Macedonia.

Regarding renewable resources, as I have mentioned before, there are a lot of types of energy that can be produced in the Republic of Macedonia, even though the Republic of Macedonia is a small state. On the other hand, the region and the neighbouring states are hungry for energy.

Besides the thermal and hydro energy centrals that are present in the Republic of Macedonia, in the recent past we have been paying great attention to the sun as a renewable resource in the Republic of Macedonia. This is a potential area of finance for providing energy from the sun in the Republic of Macedonia. The major part of the year is sunny in the Republic of Macedonia; thus we can produce a great amount of solar energy in our country.

So far, unfortunately, we have not found gas or oil. If we discover gas or oil, we will benefit from it. Even though some explorations have said there is a lot of oil in the Republic of Macedonia, we have not proven these explorations yet.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you, Mr. Keddy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We appreciate your visit with us today in this rather informal exchange, but one that was helpful nonetheless.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Before we go on to other business, we're going to take about a two-minute break so that our committee members can bid you adieu and wish you well on your visit in Canada.

Thank you again.