Thank you, Mr. Chairman and committee members. It's wonderful to be here. Thank you for the invitation to appear before the Standing Committee on International Trade concerning the negotiation of a Canada-India comprehensive economic partnership agreement.
The Canadian government's actions to advance foreign market opportunities are critical. It is a difficult time for economic negotiations. The need to continue efforts towards open, dynamic trade has been described as a bicycle. To avoid backsliding into protectionism, countries must stay on the bicycle and keep pedalling, even if the terrain covered looks quite minimal on a day-to-day basis.
Despite our best efforts, the large bicycle built for the 159 members of the World Trade Organization has, regrettably in our view, stalled. We, Canada, and the rest of the WTO members who've invested in the Doha Round are regrettably somewhat off this bicycle, in fact, and riders with the best support teams are now mounting new, smaller bicycles and pedalling off, and frankly, in many directions.
In this challenging context, we commend the government for having developed a strong suite of bilateral and plurilateral negotiations for Canada. The suite of ongoing negotiations is of course very well known to this committee, and includes the Canada-EU comprehensive economic trade agreement negotiations and bilateral agreements in Asia, including with South Korea, India, and Japan, as well as plurilateral options, namely, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. These agreements will be a vital source of future jobs and opportunities for Canadian workers and families.
As an element of this ambitious agenda, the negotiation of a timely Canada-India comprehensive economic partnership agreement is one that the Canadian Council of Chief Executives fully supports. This negotiation must be well resourced, both in terms of negotiating staff and political will, and should be a top priority given the size and projected growth of the Indian market, in particular once the Canada-EU negotiations conclude, we hope.
GDP is rising in developing countries faster and at a greater scale than ever before in human history. Canadian firms from agriculture to energy, and to financial services and IT, must be part of this growth story.
In our view, the CEPA should be comprehensive and include the elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers on the majority of trade within 10 years of entry into force; the liberalization of services trade in most sectors, including, most critically, financial services, and a strong exchange of offers between Canada and India on all four modes of services supply; strong investment provisions to promote Canadian investment in India; simplified rules of origin; a binding dispute settlement mechanism; regulatory coherence and cooperation to promote market transparency; government procurement; transparent and simplified customs procedures; and high standards of IP protection.
Our commercial relationships should develop not simply through the exchange of goods and services, but through dynamic interactions, including investment in foreign subsidiaries and joint ventures, licensing, IP, and supply chains, and across multiple jurisdictions. In short, we call on the negotiators for both Canada and India to ensure that the CEPA aligns and keeps pace with the ways in which business is in fact done on the ground today.
As such, a critical piece to promoting a deeper relationship is the conclusion at the earliest opportunity of a comprehensive Canada-India foreign investment promotion and protection agreement, or FIPA. These negotiations have effectively concluded, but no final deal has been signed. We should examine the FIPA to ensure it is of the highest quality and, in our view, then put in place a clear timeline to finalize this agreement.
For our part, to raise awareness in the Canadian business community and among policy-makers of the opportunities in India and Asia more broadly, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives has launched an initiative called “Canada in the Pacific Century” to promote and identify key policy solutions to enhance Canada's ability to succeed in a transforming global economy. The results of this initiative are available online on our website, www.ceocouncil.ca.
As the secretariat for the newly created Canada-India CEO Forum, along with our critical partner, the Confederation of Indian Industry, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives will continue to promote private sector relations to improve our commercial activities. We are pleased to support our CEO forum co-chairs, Tom Jenkins of OpenText, and Hari Bhartia of Jubilant Life Sciences, and the CEOs who form the committee and working groups.
At that inaugural meeting of the CEO forum on November 6, 2012, members identified priority sectors, including natural resources, infrastructure, education, ICT, and financial services. Forum members clearly expressed support for a timely and comprehensive CEPA negotiation.
I trust that my remarks here today underscore that the private sector itself is of course taking action, working with government enablers, such as Export Development Canada, the trade commissioner service, and our dynamic diplomatic assets in India to deepen our commercial relations.
While firmly keeping our paramount economic relationship with the United States robust and dynamic, Canada must also expand its activities in growing markets such as India. These large markets provide the scale of customer demand required for Canadian firms to create jobs, growth and global presence. The member firms of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives wish to see more businesses using Canada as the staging ground for their global operations. In that regard investment and economic agreements with India and other large economies are particularly critical.
Thank you for your time.