No, no.
Evidence of meeting #107 for International Trade in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was technology.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #107 for International Trade in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was technology.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
Peter Fonseca Liberal Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
Eliminating those tariffs, what would that mean to your company?
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
The Liberals will have lots of time if you want to punt that question over.
We're going to the NDP now.
Ms. Ramsey, you have the floor for five minutes.
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON
Thank you for presenting today. We've heard a similar testimony to yours from agriculture, auto and steel on Mercosur, and about this really extreme imbalance that exists with the Mercosur countries.
Mr. Wilson, picking up on what you're talking about, having some domestic manufacturing auto policy would be a good start for us and it's the same for the vintners and across the board on some of our really key sectors that are driving our economy.
You mentioned that some Mercosur countries are involved in dumping practices and you mentioned the tariffs, but I really want to ask you about those non-tariff barriers that exist in Mercosur countries and what challenges you see there.
9:10 a.m.
Senior Vice-President, Policy and Government Relations, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
The biggest ones...and Mr. Williams might be able to answer specifically from his company as well so, maybe after I'm done, I'll flip it to him if that's okay.
The biggest things we've heard about from our members are typical things that we see in other markets around the world too. In the automotive sector, for example, countries are very good at randomly changing regulations to suit their needs to make sure their domestic producers are favoured over top of any importers coming in. I assume it's the same in wine and other sectors. If there's a new market opportunity opening up and a vehicle that's made in Canada, or say in the U.S. or in Mexico with significant Canadian content in it, has an advantage in that market, we will suddenly see a change in the regulatory policies.
In some cases around the world, we've seen countries that will implement new requirements for testing on vehicles where they don't even have the equipment inside the country to do the testing on them. It's completely random and it's completely there to block exports from our markets, or specifically imports from other markets into their markets.
We see that on a very regular basis, which is why it is important that as we go through free trade agreements.... This isn't new to Mercosur or EU or anyone else. We've been talking about this for a long time. You need the regulatory alignment behind the scenes to eliminate all those barriers that can pop up on an ongoing basis. It's an essential part of any trade agreement now, and something that I think we've ignored for far too long, along with the impacts of it.
That would be the specific type of example that we hear from our members.
9:15 a.m.
NDP
Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON
Thank you.
With 18 wineries in my riding of Essex I would be remiss if I didn't ask Mr. Paszkowski a question as well.
I know well the imbalances being created by trade agreements and the harm in particular that NAFTA has caused to our domestic wine industry, and of course we'd all like to see that flourish and grow. It provides more than just the wine itself. It's the tourism, the agriculture, all of the spinoff jobs that exist because of the vintners in my community and others.
I really want to ask you about the wine annex that has happened in the trans-Pacific partnership. Do you see a way that a wine annex should be part of trade agreements going forward and a way that it could be successful in ensuring that you have a level playing field for Canadian wines?
9:15 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Vintners Association
The wine annex that's in the trans-Pacific partnership agreement comes from the World Wine Trade Group. Canada participates in that group, an industry-government body that has developed the harmonization of regulations to bring down barriers to trade so that my label can enter your country, your label can enter my country, and there are no additional costs incurred.
It's a good thing that this was added into the TPP. Equally in NAFTA—there's another one being negotiated, which will likely be the most comprehensive of any free trade agreement in the world—it's positive as well.
You have to recognize, however, that the largest beneficiaries of that harmonization will be wines entering Canada, not our wines entering places around the world. However, it creates a foundation for good regulations and good policy around the world. Other countries can tap into it.
As you're going to see now, if Mercosur comes on board there will in all likelihood be a harmonization agreement put in. To get harmonization around the world would be a positive element in any wine trade agreement, because that will level the playing field.
9:15 a.m.
NDP
Tracey Ramsey NDP Essex, ON
You appeared before the Standing Committee on Finance during the pre-budget consultations. Further to what my colleague was asking you earlier—you mentioned the direct payments that are being provided by governments around the globe in support of their competitiveness and their grape-wine industries—do you know whether any of the Mercosur governments are providing this type of support? Where do you see the greatest challenge for us? I know you mentioned a couple of the countries.
9:15 a.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Vintners Association
I don't have any specifics on Mercosur countries with me today, but without a doubt there's going to be a significant amount of support provided to the Argentinian wine industry, given its size in that country. They own their entire market, so if they weren't able to export they'd have to cut down their production. Their government will support them significantly to move that surplus volume out of the country.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
That wraps up the time. We're going to move over to the Liberals.
Ms. Ludwig, you have the floor. Go ahead.
May 1st, 2018 / 9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Karen Ludwig Liberal New Brunswick Southwest, NB
Good morning.
I'm going to start with Mr. Williams, and I'm going to kindly ask the question for my colleague: what would the elimination of tariffs and the opportunity for labour mobility mean to your company?
9:15 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Redline Communications
Thank you.
At Redline, we export about 90% of our products globally. The South American market is a significant growth opportunity for us. As I mentioned, we do a lot of work in Argentina with the national oil companies there, and there's a large and growing opportunity in Brazil, particularly in mining and the automation of infrastructure around the IoT. This would have a significant impact on Redline in terms of increasing revenue and increasing the number of personnel we have designing these advanced products for these opportunities. It would be a significant boost for us.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Karen Ludwig Liberal New Brunswick Southwest, NB
Okay, thank you.
What is the average age of the people who are working in the design field in your company?
9:20 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Redline Communications
They're approximately 35 to 40 years old.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
9:20 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Redline Communications
Talent is becoming an increasingly challenging problem for us. We have a lot of very large U.S. companies coming into the Markham area and the GTA. Although they're creating new jobs, basically what they're doing is stealing them from me and driving our costs up. The recruitment of a lot of the top university talent is being done out of the U.S., and many global tech companies are moving into the GTA, making it really challenging.
Unfortunately, we're having to look at lower-cost development geographies. We're opening a development centre in Romania, which is unfortunate, but access to talent is just becoming more and more challenging for a small company such as Redline.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Karen Ludwig Liberal New Brunswick Southwest, NB
When we're looking at talent in Canada, the labour aspect, we've heard from a number of different witnesses, is a challenge.
You mentioned Brazil and Argentina. If we're looking at Portuguese and Spanish countries, do many of your employees speak Portuguese or Spanish?
9:20 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Redline Communications
Yes, we have a large number of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking employees.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Karen Ludwig Liberal New Brunswick Southwest, NB
Excellent. Thank you.
Mr. Wilson, is it typical for the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters that a first-time exporter, if they're looking, let's say, to export to Brazil or Argentina—those seem to be the larger markets—would go direct, or would you advise them to go through an agent or distributor or partnership?
9:20 a.m.
Senior Vice-President, Policy and Government Relations, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
It would depend on the type of product they're selling and what they're doing. This is a generalization, but many first-time exporters will go as part of a bigger project. For example, SNC-Lavalin, doing a construction project in Brazil—building a new road, or something like that—would take a certain percentage of Canadian suppliers with them on that project as part of the conditions, typically, of their EDC contract, if they're using them. I'm just using this hypothetically.
That is almost always the best way for a company, a first-time exporter, to understand what they have to go through, because they're using the scale of a larger Canadian company and the backing they come with. We strongly encourage our members to try to partner as much as possible with other companies, especially those that have the expertise already, because it's daunting.
You just mentioned language issues, but the legal and all the other issues that come with them aren't the same as when doing business here. It's a huge issue for companies, especially for a company that could be five or 10 people.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
9:20 a.m.
Senior Vice-President, Policy and Government Relations, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
Certainly EDC tries to make them aware. We'll try to do it through our own—
9:20 a.m.
Senior Vice-President, Policy and Government Relations, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters
That's a whole other question. EDC does a lot of advertising, I guess. We have surveyed our members about awareness and the use of EDC. The understanding not just of EDC but of the trade commissioner services.... These are all really good services; very few people know they exist.