International Trade Committee on March 11th, 2020

[Kendal Hembroff]

Sure. I'm just wondering if the question can be slightly clarified. Is the question whether or not Canada's ability to negotiate is impaired by a need to protect a particular industry or whether the question is more about Canada's ability to seek successful outcomes if another country is protecting an industry.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

It's if Canada decides to protect an industry.

[Kendal Hembroff]

You know what? I've been negotiating trade agreements for probably 20 years, and I don't think I have ever been part of a negotiation where we haven't had sensitivities that we had to protect. We are not a duty-free port like Singapore or Hong Kong, for example, so whether we are protecting key sectors such as our supply-managed sectors, our automotive sector or our cultural industries—I'm just giving some examples of sensitivities—that has always been part of our negotiating strategy.

Our interest is to try to negotiate the best possible outcomes for Canadians. We certainly do our best to try to protect our sensitivities in the negotiations. Obviously, at the end of the day, the results of our negotiations are a negotiated outcome, but I think that is something that certainly we are accustomed to. The reality is that there are very few countries in the world that don't have something to protect.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

All right, we've completed the third round.

Mr. Arya.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

I have one question, if I may.

I know we have signed agreements with the 14 countries covering 51% of the population. Still, the bulk of the trade is with North American countries, the U.S. and Mexico.

Are we going ahead with chasing a few more trade agreements or are we consolidating what we have now?

[Kendal Hembroff]

Chair, again, because this question is outside of the WTO, I'll ask whether you'd like me to answer that. I can answer it in the role that I have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

If you would like to take an opportunity to attempt to, but we won't hold you to the answer as being 100% accurate.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Kendal Hembroff]

Sure.

As director for trade negotiations, I'm responsible not only for our engagement at the WTO but also our bilateral and regional free trade negotiations, so I'm happy to take the question.

We are in the process of negotiating several free trade agreements, including with the Mercosur block of countries, which includes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. We are also engaged in negotiations with the countries in the Pacific Alliance bloc, which are Chile, Mexico, Colombia and Peru. In addition to those two negotiations, we're also exploring the possibility of launching negotiations with ASEAN in Southeast Asia. We have also recently initiated public consultations with Canadians on possible modernization of our free trade agreement with Ukraine.

These are some of the initiatives that are currently under way.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you.

Thank you very much to our witnesses. We appreciate all of the great knowledge that you've shared with us today.

The witnesses may leave. I need to ask the committee a question.

Currently the routine is that witnesses speak for 10 minutes. We can reduce that to five minutes if the committee would prefer, just to give us more time for questions.

Is that something—?

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

No, let them speak.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Let them speak for 10 minutes.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

That's my consensus.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Okay.

Does the committee agree that the briefs for the WTO study should be a maximum of 2,000 words and that the deadline should be set for Monday, March 30?

That's pretty normal, so I assume everyone is good with that.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Okay, fine.

That's it. We've done what we had to do today and I move adjournment.