International Trade Committee on Nov. 20th, 2018

Evidence of meeting #130 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 smes.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Government of Canada's Support for the International Trade of Small and Medium-sized Businesses

Committee Business

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Leigh Smout Executive Director, World Trade Centre Toronto, Toronto Region Board of Trade

Jack Mintz President's Fellow, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, As an Individual

Mark Agnew Director, International Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

Susanna Cluff-Clyburne Senior Director, Parliamentary Affairs, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

Corinne Pohlmann Senior Vice-President, National Affairs and Partnerships, Canadian Federation of Independent Business

Caroline Tompkins President and Chief Executive Officer, Forum for International Trade Training

Jonathon Azzopardi Chairman, Canadian Association of Moldmakers

Timothy Galbraith Director, Canadian Association of Moldmakers

Phil McColeman Brantford—Brant, CPC

Terry Sheehan Sault Ste. Marie, Lib.

12:40 p.m.

Director, International Policy, Canadian Chamber of Commerce

Mark Agnew

It's a qualified yes, in the sense that you have to bring the right people who are ultimately going to be buyers of these goods or services. The other qualifier would be that you're not showing preference in terms of the government going out and tracking the potential Canadian sellers on the other end. As long as it's done in an inclusive manner across geographic regions, that could potentially be a model to follow.

12:40 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking

That wraps up our dialogue with the MPs. Thank you very much for coming and joining us.

This study is going to continue on for a few more meetings yet. Just before you go, you folks have such a big outreach with so many small and medium-sized businesses and we're probably going to have submissions coming in until the middle of December. We don't have the exact date, maybe until the end of December. I encourage you to reach out to your members. If they have their own individual perspectives that they would want to put in our report, we would appreciate them. If we receive their submissions, we can incorporate them. Many things will be the same, but there may be a perspective from an individual business. You're welcome to have a copy of the report when it is done, probably in February.

Thanks very much.

We're just going to go in camera for a minute. We're going to deal with some future business.

[Proceedings continue in camera]