Evidence of meeting #6 for International Trade in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was agreement.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Don Stephenson  Assistant Deputy Minister, Trade Policy and Negotiations, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade

4:25 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

If we were to look at the Buy American agreement that we have in front of us, we have a 12-month period in which the Americans have agreed not to take any actions under the WTO government procurement agreement provisions. That provides some measure of breathing space as people adapt to it. Obviously they will have the same rates as Canadian companies would have to resort to dispute settlement if there were cases where they felt that unfair practices had been engaged. I don't imagine that would, in a circumstance like that, result in the infrastructure project not proceeding. A WTO process, of course—and Don may want to add to this—gives one certain remedies at the end of the day if your case is successful.

I think that some who dwell on these disputes ignore the fact that we have massive amounts of trade, literally millions of transactions that are never contested, that go very well between the countries. That's where our prosperity comes from. Two-thirds of our Canadian economy, as I said, is trade-related. When you weigh that against the number of cases where we have irritants or you have disputes that go to dispute resolution, it really is a very small case.

Did you want to add anything to that?

4:30 p.m.

Don Stephenson Assistant Deputy Minister, Trade Policy and Negotiations, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade

If an American company filed a complaint regarding a specific contract, the matter would be resolved by Canadian courts. So it would be much faster than in the case of softwood lumber and the trade measures the Americans took in the context of anti-dumping and countervailing measures.

4:30 p.m.

Bloc

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

Mr. Minister, some people have said that a large portion of contracts will be set aside for American SMEs. Apparently, when the value of the contract does not exceed the maximum amount, SMEs will have free access to these contracts, but Canadian and Quebec markets will not be able to access them.

Do you have any idea of the percentage or the number of contracts that will be reserved for American SMEs?

4:30 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

Again, I think it's impossible for one to speculate on what that number is and how that would operate. I would simply say that the threshold numbers that were selected here were not selected by the federal government. They were in fact threshold numbers selected by the provinces. Again, they're the ones taking on the obligations, and for whatever reasons, those were the thresholds they wanted to apply.

4:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Lee Richardson

Thank you, Mr. Minister.

That takes us up to well over five minutes, but it also takes us up to the hour that we had asked of your time. We appreciate your coming and answering the questions so well. I'm glad we got through it, too. I think for the most part we satisfied people's number one question on their minds at least. Thank you again for appearing.

Mr. Stephenson, thank you as well for reappearing before the committee.

I'm sure you'll both be back. Thanks again.

We're going to take a moment here to switch to in camera. We can bid our guests adieu, and I'd like to return to the table to have an in camera meeting on future business.

[Proceedings continue in camera]