International Trade Committee on Oct. 4th, 2011

[Peter McGovern]

We have 23 points of service in the United States.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

I know it's trade promotion, but what is important to us, especially in the United States, is trade restrictions. Does the trade secretariat have any involvements in terms of market intelligence? We've been trying to figure out since June 28, in our minds, how the Government of Canada could have been so blindsided by the Buy American provisions when President Obama was telescoping to the world that he was going to have a very protectionist stimulus package.

Do you have any involvement in that kind of market intelligence? You have 20-some offices. We get all the consulates. We get the Washington embassy. We have DFAIT here. The minister seemed caught by surprise a bit. I find this amazing.

[Peter McGovern]

Again, my understanding is that this committee was briefed by our colleagues on the Buy American provisions in the proposed American Jobs Act last week. So the record would be whatever answers they provided to you on that. I am not going to—

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Peter, you are a politician.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Actually, it was quite extensive.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

It was very extensive.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Mr. Easter, carry on.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Yes, it was very extensive, but we still haven't had any answers. Now, the government got caught with their pants down in not seeing this coming. They should have been pre-emptive in preventing this from happening.

In terms of the mix that you deal with—and here, I don't want to call it a commodity mix—whether intellectual property, IT, services, or basic commodities like agriculture or fisheries, do you basically deal with anything having to do with trade? What kind of mix do you have?

[Peter McGovern]

The model that we used, Mr. Easter, is called the integrative trade model. It covers everything from education to marketing through merchandise exports, to investment, to Canadian investment abroad, to science and technology, to innovation. It's that full range of activity, all of which is important to Canada's competitive position in the world.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

If one were, say, a tool and die maker or making specialty aerospace parts, which they do in Slemon Park in Summerside, what is the process that one would go through in working with the trade commissioner's service in Canada to assist your business in its work on the ground in, say, India, in terms of further commercializing the sale of the company's product?

[Peter McGovern]

It's an interesting example that you chose, because it's actually one I'm familiar with. We have a presence in Summerside because of the work that we did in Italy, where there are very highly developed systems and processes and very innovative approaches. There were Italian firms investing in P.E.I., particularly at the aeropark, which was an ideal facility for them. What's interesting is that we were able to take this very high level of sophistication in terms of innovative processes and team it up with the capabilities on the island. When I spoke to those guys who made the investment, they were totally complimentary about the skilled workforce they had created, the loyalty of the people they had, and the fact that the community colleges and the universities were willing to train engineers. Those are the kinds of sustainable processes that we are always trying to create.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Hiebert.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

You talked in your opening remarks about the government's global commerce strategy. I was wondering if you could elaborate for the committee on what the elements are of that strategy. Is there a particular area of focus regionally or on a particular industry? How would you encapsulate that particular strategy?

[Peter McGovern]

Sure.

The global commerce strategy was premised on three things: boosting market access; increasing Canada's share of global investment, innovation, and talent; and strengthening Canada's international commercial network.

As to the commercial network, one of the big developments out of the global commerce strategy was our ability to be proactive in pursuing opportunities in major emerging markets. With money that we got from the strategy, we opened two offices in Brazil. We also opened four more offices in India and enhanced our presence there, particularly in the southern part of the country, where a lot of the information technology is—in Bangalore and places like that. While everybody is competing for the attention of India, we have boots on the ground now. Of course, we opened six new offices in China and enhanced our presence in some of the other offices we're in.

When you consider China, and you look at Chongqing, you see that it's a city of 34 million people. You cannot afford not to be present in these places. They are becoming more important commercially, more prosperous, and they are demanding more goods and services. That's an element of our approach.

Countries compete against countries, and we know that countries like Australia are very aggressive in pursuing Asian opportunities. We're doing the same.

[Russ Hiebert, Conservative, South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC]

In light of the competition with Australia, the U.S., or whomever, are there things these countries are doing that we should be doing as well?

[Peter McGovern]

We're always examining the services and the approach that we have. As a matter of fact, we have annual meetings with UKTI, Austrade, and the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise people, where we talk with them about what they're doing and what we do. We've come out pretty well, but you always have to be showing progress and you always have to be nimble. That is the biggest concern to me. If our minister says he was just in Indonesia and the place is booming and he asks what we are doing about it, we have to have an answer. We have to be able to tell the minister what we're thinking about, either in enhancing our presence or increasing our ability to get Canadians into that market where we can compete.

An interesting fact about Indonesia is that it's the fourth largest market in the world for RIM. It is the country that uses BlackBerry Messenger more than anybody else. You would not immediately think of Indonesia as a high-technology partner, but it's one of the most important ones. Sadly, I don't have shares in RIM, but if I did, I'd want to make sure that we were doing everything we could to increase its market presence in Indonesia. That's where prosperity is being created and the opportunities are.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Mr. Holder, you wanted to take the rest of the time?

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

I've just realized I now have a conflict of interest because of RIM.

I have two questions, which I'll ask together to see how you might combine them. One, I think this is a critically important topic and I wonder how you communicate to members of Parliament—all of us—on an ongoing basis. It's a great brochure, but I'm wondering how you keep us engaged in what you're doing. We can help each other, but you can certainly help us to assist our constituents' businesses.

Second, being from London, Ontario, or any other community throughout the country, for that matter, if I or another member wanted to be able to guide businesses that want to do more of this, rather than our just giving them a toll-free number or a website but instead putting on a value-added service, such as some kind of seminar, how would you support us in London or any other community?

[Peter McGovern]

First of all, there's a departmental mechanism that provides for the briefing of members of Parliament. I'm more than willing to work with any member of Parliament to assist him or her in promoting the interests of firms in their ridings or region or province. That's an undertaking from us. We're more than willing to do that.

As for the second element of your question, could you remind me...?

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

This is such an exceptional thing to do—to promote these services rather than just refer people to a toll-free number or a website. We could have really informative sessions. Businesses that may not have been considering this in the past would be able to see that maybe this is something they could be looking at to grow their businesses.

[Peter McGovern]

I'll give you my coordinates and suggest to you that our regional offices are always doing seminars. They'll take it on the road and—

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

That goes back to the communications piece.

[Peter McGovern]

That's the communications piece, and that's my problem, but we'll undertake to do that on your behalf.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Mr. Côté.