International Trade Committee on April 27th, 2022

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

On the agricultural side, do you see any sectors within our supply-managed sectors of agriculture that should benefit or have some concerns?

[Mark Agnew]

I don't think any of our supply-managed sectors have expressed an interest in those markets. I stand to be corrected on that, but certainly I would anticipate that the government is going to be taking a fairly traditional approach to minimizing concessions, if any, in supply-managed commodities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Mr. Baldinelli. I'm sorry, but you're right down to two seconds.

Mr. Sheehan.

[Terry Sheehan, Liberal, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Thank you very much to all our presenters again.

The ASEAN region is very susceptible to climate change. I found when I travelled over there that much discussion was about climate change as it related to the devastating effects on the region, both the loss of life because of disaster and the loss of economic opportunity.

Through you, Madam Chair, to our presenters, perhaps the gentleman from Singapore and the person representing Vietnam, or others, may want to comment on the opportunities in trade and trade deals in tackling climate change. Our country Canada has taken a very aggressive stance in relation to climate change. We are investing in industries and opportunities all across Canada, including in my riding of Sault Ste. Marie.

What are the opportunities that we can work on together as we all try to reach net zero?

[Wayne Christopher Farmer]

I guess I'll go first. Thank you.

Look, it is a definite concern in this part of the world. I would say that there's a balance, particularly in some of the developing nations in ASEAN, between bread-and-butter economic issues and people's livelihoods, with the resources necessary to spend on climate mitigation and change. However, there is quite a bit of growing expertise in this part of the world. Particularly here in Singapore, climate change is a concern in terms of rising water levels in the ocean, rainwater and that sort of thing. There's actually quite a bit of innovation that's been taking place.

In addition, the sovereign wealth funds here, Temasek and GIC, as you probably know, are quite significant globally. Much like our pension funds in Canada, they have made very strong commitments to climate change through investment, both in companies in their existing portfolio—not just in Singapore but globally, and having them adapt to this—and in new industries and new areas of technology that can be brought to bear.

I think there is quite a bit of collaboration that can exist in this region with the initiatives in Canada, and it would be quite mutually beneficial to continue to push that.

[Terry Sheehan, Liberal, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Thank you.

I'm going to ask one more quick question, because we're running out of time as well, to our representative from Vietnam.

Vietnam has a very interesting history in the region. It has emerged as a trade tiger over the last few years. Could you talk about some of the opportunities?

Again, some shared values that come to my mind include women in the workforce. Women have played a paramount role in Vietnam throughout its history, both during conflict and within the economy. In Vietnam they speak many languages, but they also speak English and French.

To our representative from Vietnam, perhaps you could expand on some of the opportunities related to both of our countries' efforts to maximize gender equity in trade deals and in trade matters, as well as the shared languages that we have.

[Julie Dai Trang Nguyen]

Thank you for the question.

It is true that both Canada and Vietnam are members of la Francophonie. This is a huge opportunity to build people-to-people links in order to take advantage of educational and cultural co-operation.

As for gender equality, we could take advantage, when we negotiate the trade agreement, and include a trade and gender chapter. This is to mainstream gender by including gender-related provisions throughout a free trade agreement. This is only one way, among many ways in Canada, we have used to seek to promote access for women to trade and also to advance gender equality and other gender-related activities in future agreements.

Canada has also had many international development assistance projects to promote women-led businesses in Vietnam. I could see that, from the points of view of language and of gender equality, Canada and Vietnam have a long history of co-operation. These would be great opportunities for both countries.

[Terry Sheehan, Liberal, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Thank you very much.

Do I have any more time? I have no time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much to the members.

Thank you very much to all our witnesses. You have our apologies for the delay, but it was well worth it to listen to your testimony. Thank you all very much.

The meeting is adjourned.