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.
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
Absolutely. That's going to happen in virtually every agreement.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
I want to get to the U.S. example. You talked about state procurement and subnationals. The feds in the U.S. cannot negotiate on behalf of the states. Is that correct?
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
They need their permission. It depends on what the constitutional issue is. But for the most part, they have to get the permission of the states.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
Similarly in Canada, we cannot negotiate on behalf of the provinces.
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
I'm not a lawyer but I understand that issue is not crystal clear. It's not one that the federal government has ever been prepared to take to the Supreme Court.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
We have involved the provinces in negotiations. Particularly in the free trade agreement, the provinces were brought in and actually had seats at the table.
On the U.S. administration getting trade promotion authority to fast-track, this is not common in this point in negotiations on any trade agreement in the U.S. Is that correct?
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
It should have been done much earlier, because normally they do it earlier.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
It should have been done earlier than at this point in the negotiations?
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
They usually get trade promotion authority periodically, and it lasts for a period of five years or so. They take a period of time and they negotiate the various agreements under the TPA. If you go back, I think to 2007, they had a bipartisan consensus on basic issues they wanted to see in every trade agreement. People in Congress think it's unusual to let it go this long.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
Okay.
Now, typically, a trade agreement, once negotiated, would come back to Congress, and then they would sort of fight it out?
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
No, usually if they have TPA, it's an up-and-down deal.
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
That's if they have TPA. But if they don't, then, all the special interests and everything will just weigh in.
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
The last one that was done like that was the Kennedy Round.
President, Grey, Clark, Shih and Associates Limited
In the Kennedy Round, the issue the Americans had was that they had what they called an American selling price system of valuation for chemicals and they were supposed to trade it away. Congress withdrew it during the approval period, so it upset the balance. In order to go into the Tokyo Round, they had to develop this fast-track authority.
Conservative
Conservative
Mark Adler Conservative York Centre, ON
What is the total value of what your members contribute to the Canadian economy?
Executive Director, Grain Growers of Canada
We have about, I'd say, just over $20 billion.