Thank you very much, Chair, for having me back.
I think this is certainly a timely study, given the government's work currently on the Indo-Pacific strategy, upon which I'm going to be focusing my remarks for the next few minutes.
The first area that I want to mention is around trade policy. We have a number of initiatives that are ongoing in the region, and certainly they hold potential for opening new market access opportunities. These include recently announced initiatives such as our negotiations with ASEAN and Indonesia but also the potential for CPTPP expansion and opening opportunities in underutilized markets for Canadian businesses such as Taiwan.
I think it's important to go into these discussions, certainly, with a clear set of priorities. That's something we hear about regularly from our members. Some of the priorities that I would encourage this committee to think about in its recommendations would be, first, around tariff liberalization to ensure that our exports are remaining cost-competitive; having robust digital trade chapters that ensure the protection of cross-border data flows and that data localization does not become a condition for doing business in these markets; and enhancing regulatory dialogues to ensure that non-tariff measures such as SPS regulations in the agriculture sector do not become barriers to trade.
Also in the context of CPTPP specifically, we encourage the government to maintain the high standards of the agreement and not water down its provisions when it's looking at potential accession countries in the negotiation process.
The second area in the Indo-Pacific strategy in the Indo-Pacific region, of course, is China. Although the government has committed to delivering an “Indo-Pacific strategy”, the elements that pertain to China will certainly be quite critical for the Canadian business community. I think it's important to be clear-eyed not only, of course, about the size of the market but also the geopolitical challenges posed by China. How we engage with China needs to be balanced intelligently and certainly anchored, also, around co-operation with our allies in engaging with Beijing.
The third consideration goes back to what I said a moment ago around focus. The reality is that we live in a world of finite resources, both financially for the government and also with the bandwidth of human resources to deliver upon a foreign policy agenda. It would not be realistic to expect that our country can make a push in all sectors and in all countries in the region equally. We need to be judicious about how we go about selecting markets of focus and the priority sectors we are pursuing in those countries.
The fourth and final area I want to mention is around the role of non-governmental entities in bolstering trade relationships through the region in on-the-ground connections. Businesses are the ones that engage in commerce at the end of the day rather than governments. In doing so, they play an important part in the Canadian footprint in the region. I think government should see trade missions and other activities that facilitate those connections as part of a broader set of foreign policy tools at our disposal.
I know that when I travel abroad on behalf of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, I represent not only my organization but also what foreign nationals perceive about Canada and Canadians. Therefore, a strong industry-government collaboration, I think, is mutually reinforcing.
Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to your questions.