Evidence of meeting #21 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was tpp.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Malcolm Allen NDP Welland, ON
My issue is I would appreciate using another 10 to 15 minutes between our colleagues to ask a couple more questions.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
There's nobody else on my list. I will allow you to ask a quick question, if you have something burning. Go ahead.
NDP
Malcolm Allen NDP Welland, ON
We always have burning questions, Mr. Chair. That's why we come to committee.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Your name was not on the list, but go ahead. You're new here, so we'll be gracious.
NDP
Malcolm Allen NDP Welland, ON
I'm quite happy to have you add me to the list, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate your adding me.
Ms. Hillman, you talked in your opening remarks about state-owned enterprises and the complexities and difficulties with them. Can you give us a sense of how they factor into the TPP? We have different types of models, with crown corporations—unlike some of the partners, that have true state-owned enterprises including investment funds that are totally foreign to the way we would do things.
I could be wrong about this, but I don't think they're about to wind them up and privatize them and send them off to wherever. Can you give us an overview and a sense of what exactly the nuances and difficulties are that we might face with this situation?
Canada's Chief Negotiator, Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Trade Policy and Negotiations, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
Sure, I'd be happy to.
First, just to be clear, nobody is asking any country to wind up their state-owned enterprises. Canada, like every single TPP member around that table, has state-owned enterprises. In all of our modern FTAs we have rules regarding state-owned enterprises and government entities. They are found in the competition chapter.
The objective of these principles is to ensure that certain companies do not benefit from business advantage by virtue of their ownership structure; they are fair competition rules.
In the TPP, that's precisely what we're trying to address and build upon a little bit more in relation to a variety of areas. It remains to be seen where it will all land, but there will be additional transparency requirements so that we can know what's going on in some of these entities; we can know the extent to which they exercise government functions as well as private functions. These are the kinds of factors that are very relevant to making sure that a country isn't distorting, if I can put it that way, international trade through the operations of certain kinds of ownership structures within its economy.
When I say it's a challenging chapter, it's because we have different countries with different economic models around the table whose economies are different in important ways. We have to find a common set of objectives, which I think we most certainly have done. I think everybody has agreed that they're not looking to have a competitive advantage for their government-owned entities.
But then it becomes a question of how we take the common goal that we've all agreed upon and translate it into legally binding rules that will get us where we want to go. That's frankly a technically challenging thing to do, but there's no doubt that there's a strong commitment on the part of all parties to ensure that our businesses are operating under appropriate rules of competition.
NDP
Malcolm Allen NDP Welland, ON
It's the issue of the provinces and territories. We have seen that there's more at stake for them, if you will, because some of the trade agreements are a little more comprehensive.
Did the provinces and territories play an integral role with you—not you personally, obviously, but as the trade negotiator—or is it more of a notification process?
Canada's Chief Negotiator, Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Trade Policy and Negotiations, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development
We have a very robust dialogue and cooperation with the provinces. I either meet with them or talk to them before and after every negotiating round. They are aware of every area in which provincial jurisdiction will be brought to bear in these negotiations, and we consult obviously very closely with them on all of those issues.
In addition to areas that are simply within their jurisdiction, they have as provincial governments economic interests, and so we have a very open and comprehensive dialogue with them about the benefits they will be seeking from the TPP. We have had some of them come to have briefings from all of our specific leads in areas that they're interested in; there they can ask detailed questions based on their constituents' businesses.
Many of those businesses are the same businesses we talk to, but we work very closely with the provinces. Our objective is to make sure that we come to the end of this agreement with an outcome about which the whole country, across all regions and for all sectors, will be saying that this is a very good deal for Canada.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
We want to thank you very much for your work as chief negotiator. This is a very important agreement for Canada, and we wish the very best of success to not only you but all of your team who are here as a resource. Hopefully the outcome will be positive for Canada.
We wish you well, and thank you for being here at committee today.
With that, we'll suspend as we move to our in camera session.
[Proceedings continue in camera]