I would like to follow up—
Evidence of meeting #79 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was tpp.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #79 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was tpp.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
If you want to talk about who is breaking election laws, let's talk about today. There's a member sitting here who shouldn't be here.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Clark, I'm interested in the comments you made. “Free trade agreement” is a bit of a misnomer because it's more managed trade rather than free trade. Is that correct?
5:10 p.m.
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
It's not truly free—there are still subsidies and regulatory differences.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
Exactly. It's more like codifying a legal regime so that everybody who falls under that regime knows the rules to play by. It provides predictability and stability so there are no surprises.
5:10 p.m.
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
That's a fair description.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
Let me go back in history a bit. We talked about how the raising of tariffs is not necessarily a good thing. If we go back to the depression, the natural reaction of countries was to raise tariffs to protect domestic industry. Is that correct?
5:10 p.m.
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
That's the way we built our manufacturing industry, with the National Policy.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
The raising of tariffs in the late 1920s was a major cause of the global depression. Is that right?
5:10 p.m.
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
I'm not sure it was the 1920s or if it was the late 1920s and the 1930s. Smoot–Hawley was 1928, I think.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
That was a major cause of the global depression, you would say.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
So tariffs are not necessarily a good thing, I think it is safe to say.
5:10 p.m.
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
I used to work for the Department of Finance. They didn't mean much to revenue but they did have a use.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
Canada's trade deficit is a major result of our strong dollar. Is that correct?
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
I know that the opposition would like us to have a weak dollar because that's what they base their industrial policy on. They say that Canada should have an industrial policy based on a weak dollar, but that's not what we believe on this side.
There are a number of trade deals that are negotiated for defensive purposes. Is that correct?
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement was certainly one of them.
5:10 p.m.
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
The Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement gave us a significant market opening because we were prepared to make concessions on the security of energy supply and a number of other issues. NAFTA was a defensive agreement for Canada
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
Okay.
There were exemptions even under the initial free trade agreement. For example, Canada exempted beer, right?
5:10 p.m.
Conservative