International Trade Committee on Dec. 8th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I'm sorry, but that's all the time we have on that round. I think we could do a very quick round of three or four minutes each. We can then have a second round.

Mr. Malhi, would you like to begin?

Excuse me; before you do, I wonder, Mr. Solis, if you might be kind enough at some point, by text or call, to give us that Supreme Court reference you referred to. There seems to be some doubt here as to whether or not that was the case. Just for clarity, could you send the Supreme Court reference on the precautionary principle? That would be useful, because it would be news to us.

[Mario Silva, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Mr. Chair, on that issue of the precautionary principle, the Supreme Court, along with many other courts, uses that language. It's used all the time for different rulings on everything.

It doesn't necessarily mean they're opposed or against something; it just means that we should always use all precautionary principles. That's just something that is part of international language used constantly by different courts, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything in a particular case. It's just the language that's being used.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

In this case, it's not the case. That's what I just asked for.

Go ahead, Mr. Malhi.

[Gurbax Malhi, Liberal, Bramalea—Gore—Malton, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It has been mentioned that the Government of Panama is opening its doors to irresponsible companies. Could you please give us some examples of irresponsible companies you're talking about, and do you think there are any mining companies that are good and responsible? Please give us their names.

[Félix Wing Solís]

Actually, I gave those names in my presentation earlier. I was referring to Inmet Mining Corporation, Teck, Petaquilla Gold, and Pacific Rim.

[Gurbax Malhi, Liberal, Bramalea—Gore—Malton, ON]

What do you think about the free trade agreement Canada has with the European association, which includes Switzerland?

[Félix Wing Solís]

I'm sorry; could you repeat the question, sir?

[Gurbax Malhi, Liberal, Bramalea—Gore—Malton, ON]

What do you think about the free trade agreement Canada has with the European association, which includes Switzerland?

[Félix Wing Solís]

I'm sorry. I'm not getting the question. I'm very sorry, sir.

[Gurbax Malhi, Liberal, Bramalea—Gore—Malton, ON]

That's fine. Thanks.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

It seems straightforward.

Mr. Malhi was just asking what you thought of the European free trade agreement that we have signed, the EFTA agreement that includes Switzerland.

[Félix Wing Solís]

Unfortunately, I am not aware of the contents of that agreement.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I think perhaps it would have been better directed to Mr. Vaillancourt. It's tax-related because of Switzerland's similar position.

[Claude Vaillancourt]

What was the question? Was it about the agreement between Canada and Europe? Was it about CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and Europe, which is currently being negotiated? Is that what the question was about?

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

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

The EFTA agreement doesn't include any of the financial information that's in the Panama agreement, so it's not an appropriate question. The EFTA agreement only concerns tariffs. It doesn't concern all of the aspects of the Panama agreement that touch on taxation--or the lack of transparency on taxation--so we're talking about apples and oranges.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Well, we often do.

Did you have any further questions?

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

If we still have time, I wouldn't mind asking a question to Monsieur Vaillancourt. The question was about the EFTA, which is an agreement that includes Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Notwithstanding the point of order by my colleague, the question really does relate to the fact that a number of Canada Revenue Agency investigations were being conducted with respect to at least Switzerland, as I understand it. During the time that Canada was negotiating the EFTA, this issue never came up. Interestingly enough, Canada Revenue Agency has, to my knowledge, confirmed that there are no similar investigations currently under way with respect to Panama, yet this seems to be a very big issue, so the first part of my question is to ask you for your thoughts on that and the discrepancy there.

The second piece of the question would be on Canadian enterprises. If there is in fact a concern about Panama being a tax haven, that ability is there now. Canadian enterprises can set up in Panama now and take advantage of it. How exactly will free trade, which, as some of my other colleagues have mentioned, would help agriculture and help some of the other industries and would benefit a number of our constituents, actually make that worse?

It's a two-part question. We're short on time, so if you could be brief, that would be much appreciated.

I apologize for not asking my question in French.

[Claude Vaillancourt]

At the G20 in London, in 2009, the issue of tax havens was considered to be extremely important. Therefore, it was decided that a series of measures would be adopted based, among other things, on information exchange are interrelated issues.

We should see those measures as a first step the international community is taking to deal with the issue. They show that the economic crisis, income difficulties experienced by governments in times of financial restraint and tax havens are interrelated issues.

So, what does Canada do? Instead of taking things even further and promoting reforms that would help us eliminate all tax evasion, our country is trying to sign an agreement with a tax haven. Yes, it's true that, currently, it's very easy to avoid taxes through Panama. This agreement could not only facilitate tax evasion, but also send the message that Canada seems to care so little about the tax haven issue that it would go ahead and conclude a free-trade agreement with one of the worst tax havens.

I think that the losses we could incur as a result of this agreement greatly exceed the benefits that could no doubt result from certain economic ties with Panama.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you. We're going to go to this side now.

Mr. Cannan and Mr. Holder, could we keep it to maybe one quick question each? Who would like to begin?

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to our witnesses. I know Ms. Healy came back for a second time, so I want to thank her for making a special trip.

We talked briefly about the strong side agreements for the environmental and labour agreement, and as part of our global commerce strategy, we're working on expanding trade beyond the North American Free Trade Agreement, which I understand the CLC had some concerns about. The previous government signed three trade agreements; we've entered into eight different agreements. We support free and fair trade.

Canadian Labour Congress, could you just list which free trade agreements you've supported?

[Dr. Teresa Healy]

We would support free trade agreements that are fair trade agreements.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Which ones have you supported in the past?

[Dr. Teresa Healy]

The ones that you refer to are all based on neo-liberal principles of free trade, and we have a set of commitments that--

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

It's not a trick question. I'm just asking which agreements you have supported out of those that the Canadian government--the previous government and our government--have ratified in the past. Have you supported any trade agreements in the past 18 years?

[Dr. Teresa Healy]

We do not support the free trade agreements that are based on investor-state principles or based on neo-liberal principles that are not organized around principles of social justice and the development of equality, economic sustainability, and environmental sustainability. We have lots of ideas about how fair trade could be organized.