International Trade Committee on Feb. 25th, 2020

[Michael Kram, Conservative, Regina—Wascana, SK]

Are they in emerging markets or sectors—which one, or is it both?

[Leigh Smout]

[Technical difficulty—Editor] emerging market sectors.

[Michael Kram, Conservative, Regina—Wascana, SK]

Okay.

In terms of these tariffs, are they still with the United States and Mexico, or are they with other countries?

[Leigh Smout]

They're mostly with other countries. This is a unilateral removal of tariffs, regardless of whether or not we have an FTA.

[Michael Kram, Conservative, Regina—Wascana, SK]

Off the top of your head, do you know which countries those are?

[Leigh Smout]

I'm sorry, and I really apologize. but I don't, off the top of my head.

I can tell you that they're not CETA, CPTPP or NAFTA countries.

[Michael Kram, Conservative, Regina—Wascana, SK]

Okay.

[Leigh Smout]

That's all I know.

[Michael Kram, Conservative, Regina—Wascana, SK]

All right. We will cross those bridges when we get to free trade agreements with those other countries, I guess.

[Leigh Smout]

Our point is not to wait for a free trade agreement on these ones that don't yield enough to the government but that cost our companies a lot, if they're exporting from Africa, for instance, to the Middle East, and so on.

[Michael Kram, Conservative, Regina—Wascana, SK]

That's a fair point.

Madam Chair, I'll leave it at that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you.

Mr. Sarai.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Thank you to all who have come here.

I want to particularly thank Ms. Anderson, from British Columbia, the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade president and CEO.

I'll go to you first.

It seems that the effectiveness of the gateway investments in making our ports, our highways and our rail links more efficient have made British Columbia, particularly the Lower Mainland, a big hub for logistics for transit. According to your numbers, it's over $20 billion in revenue.

Do you think there are more opportunities with free trade, not only the bilateral trade between the U.S. and Canada, and also because it's become a hub for import and export with Asia-Pacific, for us to do even more? If so, how can this agreement help us do even more?

[Bridgitte Anderson]

Absolutely.

When you look at the western ports, the port of Vancouver and the port of Prince Rupert, they exported 55 billion dollars' worth of goods in 2018, and the numbers continue to go up.

Having this trade agreement in place allows certainty, as I mentioned, which is really important, as well as access to markets. Certainly while we are the gateway for the Asia-Pacific, and that is an important trading partner, the U.S. remains our most important trading partner. The certainty for movement of goods through the port is very important, for sure.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

How is the film industry?

In Surrey Centre we have a large Netflix studio, Skydance studios, which employs over 300 people. It's absolutely true, as you said. It's one of the largest sectors, a growing sector and a high-paid sector. How does this trade certainty help that huge sector of our growing economy expand with this new CUSMA?

[Bridgitte Anderson]

People would probably recognize what I think is referred to as “Hollywood north”, or it used to be many years ago. Certainly we are becoming a very important production hub for film and television as well as for animation.

Allowing the movement of people and being able to have that in place and the protection that CUSMA provides are really important. As we look to see how to do that, If we look at any improvements down the road, one would be to have assurance of any priorities or any changes that could be made to visas to allow more movement of people across the border. In particular, we look at the service sector and at the increasing demand globally for employees of the service sector. That would certainly fall under that one.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Ms. Bull, you mentioned that you were consulted by GAC officials, and obviously there have been provisions put in CUSMA for indigenous trade, indigenous cross-border trade, indigenous protections as well as gender protections. This is the first of any trade agreement that has had that level of participation. Are you aware of any other trade agreement, Canadian or otherwise, where a government has taken the necessary steps with indigenous communities they have taken here?

[Tabatha Bull]

No, I'm not aware. We work closely with Australia and New Zealand, and I know there has been some discussion with Australia. They have a very exceptional procurement program that's supported through the government there. There have been some discussions that I'm aware of, but more between the indigenous communities of those two countries than led by the government.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Is your organization able to share the procurement opportunities to your membership?

I find that it's not just an indigenous issue. It's an issue across the country where I believe companies, especially SMEs, small and medium-sized businesses, don't know the opportunities they have through these new trade agreements, particularly in procurement, whether it's CPTPP, CETA or CUSMA. They're so caught up in the small little world where they've been trading, but they don't expand those horizons. Are you able to share those opportunities with them?

[Tabatha Bull]

As I said, through our membership, we have 1,000 indigenous and non-indigenous businesses, about 600 of which are indigenous businesses. We do share updates through our newsletter and through networking. However, there do need to be more programs available for us to be able to share that information more in detail with indigenous businesses, and for them to be able to build the capacity around what the new changes to CUSMA will provide for them.

We are doing further work as well with Global Affairs Canada on the benefit of export and the economic opportunities. Oftentimes, we find that when we deliver that economic reality to our members, their interest is piqued, and that starts the conversations.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

Good. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Next is Mr. Savard-Tremblay, but he's not here, so when he comes back.

Mr. Blaikie.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Bull, could you identify some of the language in CUSMA that speaks to indigenous peoples? Could you give us a sense of how that will be helpful? What is your membership looking forward to, given some of the language in the agreement? Where might it have been improved? Also, were there things that you thought could have been in there that didn't appear?

[Tabatha Bull]

First, we did support the request for an indigenous chapter in the trade agreement, and we do understand that this was put forward but not accepted. We do still feel that there are numerous new provisions, and enhancements to existing provisions that will support indigenous business, one being the government's ability to adopt and maintain measures to fulfill its obligations to indigenous people. It's an important general exception.

They have enhanced the flexibility around indigenous peoples and indigenous-owned businesses in areas of procurement and services. I think they have really recognized indigenous businesses as an area where there is a need for flexible policies and co-operation, and to develop support programs specifically for those businesses.

There's a lot of research out there as to what we can do to ensure that we can continue to grow existing businesses. How do we ensure that we can get them to other markets? Trade missions are definitely one of the ways that we can do that.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Are there any other things you think government should be looking to do in order to support indigenous people in being able to get the maximum benefit out of what's in the agreement?