International Trade Committee on Dec. 1st, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

I'm sorry. I have to cut both of you off. I'll just remind you that we're not in question period, and I'm not the Speaker. We have to let this dialogue go back and forth. I don't want to have to interrupt anybody's five minutes. Try to be productive, get the questions in quickly, and get the answers quickly.

We're going to move over to the Liberals. We have Madam Lapointe. You have the floor.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Good day, and welcome. I am very pleased to welcome you here today. I am also very happy about the adoption of CETA.

In Quebec, we have heard a lot about the labour mobility. More specifically, what would the advantages be for Quebec? What sector of Quebec activity will benefit the most in terms of labour mobility?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Ms. Lapointe, I thank you for the question, and for your work.

Since you are the only member from Quebec here, I would like to take this opportunity to tell the members of the committee how important the work done by Quebec was for CETA. Indeed, Quebec's diplomacy was essential, because there were issues to settle with Wallonia. The family links between Quebec and Wallonia and Quebec and francophone Europe were essential to obtaining Europe's support for this accord.

I want to thank you personally for your work on our project with Wallonia, and for your work with the members of the Walloon Parliament.

The Government of Quebec also worked very hard. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Premier Couillard and ministers Christine St-Pierre and Dominique Anglade, as well as our colleague Pierre Marc Johnson.

We spoke of the elements of CETA that will be very important for Quebec. Mr. Couillard and the Government of Quebec are convinced that CETA will be very important not only for all of the provinces of Canada, but especially for Quebec. As you know very well, there are now some very strong relationships between Quebec and francophone Europe. These trade relations will be easier, particularly because of tariffs.

We have not yet discussed matters related to government procurement, which is a very important element of CETA. This is also true in the cultural sphere, where there are some very solid relations between Quebec and francophone Europe. I am certain that CETA will be important.

I hope that we will have the opportunity of talking about the agricultural aspect of CETA. You probably know that Quebec is a leader in the production of hormone-free beef, which represents a great opportunity for exports from Canada to Europe.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you.

Indeed, former Premier Johnson testified here last week and we discussed various topics.

You mentioned the production of hormone-free beef, but what other sectors in Quebec could benefit from this accord? I would very much like to bring back good news in this regard when I go back to my riding this weekend.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

As I was saying earlier, there are some very good opportunities in the agricultural sector and with hormone-free beef. This is also the case in the service sector, where we can work directly. I think that CETA will provide opportunities for European investments in Canada. Certain measures will be very interesting for European investors in Canada. As we saw with our work with Thomson Reuters, it is very important for foreign investors to be able to come here with their leaders. CETA will provide that opportunity.

With regard to Canadian companies, a lot of Canadian investors work in Europe. The mobility of professionals in a company, between Canada and Europe, will be a very important element for all Canadians, but especially for Quebeckers.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you, Minister.

We're going to go to the second round, but in order to get everybody in before we close here today, I'm going to go to four minutes.

Madam Ludwig, you have four minutes.

[Karen Ludwig, Liberal, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Madam Minister, for all the work that you've done to get us to this point, and for being here today to answer our questions.

I represent the riding of New Brunswick Southwest, so obviously it's in Atlantic Canada. Approximately 50% of businesses in Atlantic Canada have one to four employees. What are the plans or strategies for helping the microbusinesses of one to four employees take advantage of the tremendous CETA opportunities? This, for us, is a regional concern.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

I've just been speaking about how important CETA is for Quebec. Your question, Karen, is an important reminder that one of the very powerful characteristics of CETA, and the reason that it's such a deep agreement, is that the provinces were engaged from the start. It has a higher level of provincial and territorial participation than in any other trade agreement. This is probably a good opportunity to get on the record my very profound thanks to the provinces and territories, and to their trade negotiators, who, Steve has told me, spent many very long days with him in Brussels. They would get briefed by Steve late at night when he came back from negotiations. The Europeans have said to me how impressed they were by that level of federal-regional co-operation in Canada.

The Atlantic provinces have been very engaged in CETA and are deeply enthusiastic about it. That's for reasons of geography. It's also for reasons of where the interest is in the European market. Fish and seafood, as you know, are fantastic Atlantic products. They are currently subject to European tariffs of up to 25%. Upon the entry into force of CETA, 96% of those tariffs lines will be eliminated immediately, and the remaining ones will be phased out over three, five, or seven years. That's a lot. A 25% tariff is a high tariff, and for that to go to zero, I think, will be a huge boost to our exporters.

You're right to be talking about small and medium-sized and even microbusinesses. I think that's something that we as a government and, I would say, as legislators need to really be focused on: bringing the benefits of trade to small and medium-sized companies.

I think everyone here is familiar with CanExport, a program that we launched at the beginning of this year to help do that. More than 500 Canadian companies have now been granted support by CanExport to explore new markets. I urge you all to talk to people and to businesses in your riding about this opportunity. It's a real chance to be an effective constituency MP and to support people.

As part of the Atlantic growth strategy, we have been talking about trade a lot. Actually, last week I was invited to a meeting of the Atlantic growth strategy team because they wanted to hear about CETA. One of the focuses of that strategy will be ensuring that Atlantic Canadian businesses know about the opportunities that CETA presents and that they will be in a position to take advantage of them. I think that's very important work.

More generally—

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

—I'll just quickly finish my sentence, Mark, because I really believe in this part—we've been talking about actually getting the trade deal done, which is a very big amount of work, but now the hardest work, in a way, is ahead of us, because the hardest work now is being sure that our companies can take advantage of it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you.

We're going to go to Mr. Hoback.

Go ahead. You have the floor.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Minister, and your staff, for being here.

Four minutes will be very quick.

Minister, one thing I always thought was really interesting was that, with CETA being done, Canada would have such a great opportunity to take advantage of its position in the world to have all these market access agreements in place. I know you talked about the protectionist environment that's been evolving as the greatest since World War II, and you might be right, but we are lucky. We have trade agreements with those groups that are protectionist or are becoming very protectionist, and I'll use—

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

I can't imagine who you're talking about.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Yes, exactly, so I don't need to say any more, but I will say this: there is still opportunity, and we've identified an opportunity in TPP. Now whether you call it TPP or something else, there is a group of countries that still want to move forward with that agreement, that still say it's in the best interest for trading in the Asian market that we do this as a bloc. Where are we on this, and why aren't we there leading the pack?

Again, please be quick, because I only get four minutes, so I apologize.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Okay. I'm very happy to talk about that.

We are very engaged with our TPP partner countries, and when I was in Lima 10 days ago I met with the U.S., Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, and Peru. That's seven of the other 11 countries.

As you know, the way the TPP is structured—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

That's why I say it's the TPP or any other name. You can call it whatever you want. It's without the U.S., though, is what I'm saying.

If the U.S. decides to step out, there are still lots of willing players in that agreement that want to do it. Where are we with these willing players?

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

That may be the case, but I just want to be clear with everyone that the agreement itself doesn't exist without the U.S. There's no possibility of the 11 signing and it happening. A new agreement would have to be created. That's point one.

Point two is very important, and I think the Japanese ambassador to Canada has been speaking about this to journalists recently. Positions may change, but the president-elect has been very clear that he does not want to go ahead with the TPP. The next-largest country in that group is Japan. Japan, for the moment, has said that it wants to wait and see. Of course, as you know, Canada had begun negotiating a bilateral agreement with Japan when the TPP came in.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

But again, Japan has been very clear in the media, saying also that they won't do anything bilaterally with Canada at this point until the TPP has a decision one way or the other.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Japan is waiting and Japan has also said—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

You're telling me something I don't know.

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

—and the Japanese Prime Minister has said very clearly that without the U.S., the TPP is meaningless. That's the position of Japan at the moment.

We are in very close contact, and on Saturday I will again be seeing trade ministers from some of the other TPP countries. We're in very close contact. We're talking to our partners and we're waiting. We are talking to them and we're working on different scenarios.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Okay. When we go back to NAFTA—

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

Randy, if I could just say this, we do have bilateral agreements already in place—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Thank you, but I will say one thing, though—

[Chrystia Freeland, Liberal, University—Rosedale, ON]

—with many of those countries: Mexico, the U.S., Chile, Peru.