International Trade Committee on June 6th, 2022

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

How much time do I have left?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You were over by nine seconds.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Already? I didn’t have time to talk to the other witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I was giving Mr. Liu as much time as possible to answer the questions.

Mr. Sheehan, you have five minutes, please.

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

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I really appreciate it.

Thanks to all our presenter for some very important testimony as we explore these opportunities for the mutual benefit of that particular region and Canada.

A lot of the questions that I've been asking are around climate change. I was in Singapore for an ASEAN conference many years ago. There was a high commissioner at that time, Lynn McDonald, I believe, who had drawn the attention of some of the work that Singapore was doing along with those ASEAN states around climate change. There was a concern in terms of the health perils and deaths resulting from various climate disasters across the area. A lot of the area is coastal and is resolved, like we are in Canada, to seek clean-tech solutions.

I'll start with our friend who's here with us today. Mr. Martel started talking about some of the clean-tech opportunities. What kind of clean-tech opportunities do you see as opportunities?

After that, I would like the rep from Singapore and the rest to chime in as well, if there is time.

[Henry Chi-Hung Liu]

Thank you for the question.

I think the most potential in clean technology is from EV. Taiwan has good information technology, and in Canada you're very good in your auto industry. When you're trying to clean up the automotive industry, you need information technology as a support.

I think this is the most important economic sector that Canada and Taiwan can share and support. In fact, there will be visiting delegations coming to Canada later this year. My office will fully support those efforts.

I should also mention hydrogen. Hydrogen is a little bit behind schedule, but I believe hydrogen, with the development of liquefied, which is able to be provided at long distance, will have as much potential as LNG in the past.

Thank you.

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

Can I have a response from our people online?

[Jean-Dominique Ieraci]

Madam Chair, I appreciate the question.

With regard to clean-tech opportunities in Singapore, that is an area of focus for us. We help quite a few SMEs penetrate the market. With Singapore being a bit of an early adopter of technologies, we use it as a platform to demonstrate technologies. Within the high commission here, we have a regional position that helps those companies expand further in the region. We're not necessarily talking only about climate change mitigation measures. I can think of the example of SENTRY, which fairly recently signed a deal with the public utilities board. This was in the water treatment space.

When you look at sustainable clean-tech technologies, there's water, air, and looking at land opportunities, and a lot of the opportunities tend to be around the infrastructure for the region.

Thank you.

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

It looks like Peter was going to say something.

[Peter MacArthur]

Indeed, we see opportunities here in clean tech. There's a desire to move away from coal. The ADB, as I mentioned, through our support to the ADB, is helping retire early coal plants in the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. There's also a possibility for LNG Canada in Prince Rupert. This is a very good market for LNG as an intermediary away from coal. There's a desire for more LNG. The offshore gas fields are depleting.

I also want to mention that Canada and the UNDP, through our development program, are involved in nature-based solutions to reinforce forests and mangroves to absorb carbon. This is one of the things we're doing.

Small hydro, under [Inaudible—Editor] hydro, these technologies from Canada are also of interest to the Filipinos.

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

Do I have time for—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have 12 seconds.

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

I would like to speak, probably offline, with the gentleman, the ambassador to Vietnam, about forced labour, which he started to address because we're undertaking a study on that right now in Parliament—John McKay has been leading the way on that—and it's going to committee. I look forward to more conversations perhaps offline.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Possibly the ambassador to Vietnam can get a comment on that when he's answering someone else's question as we move forward.

Monsieur Savard-Tremblay for two and a half minutes.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My question is for the Singapore High Commission’s representative.

Canada’s largest export sector to Singapore is aerospace. As you know, Montreal is the third-largest aerospace hub in the world. When I say Montreal, I mean Greater Montreal, which is a wider region, not just the city itself.

To your knowledge, in this particular sector, would Singapore be interested in further expanding its economic relationship with Quebec?

[Jean-Dominique Ieraci]

Madam Chair, the answer is yes. Singapore certainly wants to further develop its relationship with Quebec and Canada in the aerospace sector. As a proud Montrealer, I am, of course, always happy to support such efforts.

There is already a highly marked Canadian presence here. For example, Bombardier's and Pratt & Whitney's operations are quite extensive.

When you think of the aerospace sector, you think of manufacturing and new equipment manufacturing, but Singapore is a regional airliner maintenance centre.

Certainly, the sector is constantly on the lookout for the kind of technology we can offer. There is always a very significant delegation at the Singapore Airshow. It was limited during COVID-19, but a large delegation of Canadian companies is continually looking to export their products and services. Obviously, a substantial proportion of that delegation is from the Montreal area.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Are there currently barriers to developing this relationship?

Would there be something on the table in the event of negotiations and discussions impacting this sector?

[Jean-Dominique Ieraci]

No companies have flagged any trade barriers to me. There are still the usual obstacles, namely the inherent costs of doing business and dealing with the distance, especially in terms of crossing the Pacific Ocean. As for trade barriers, none have been brought to my attention at this time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have 30 seconds left.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Masse for two and a half minutes, please.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Liu, Mr. Lewis brought up a good point about the containers, but one of the other things that we found about container costs and shipping is that there's almost a cartel-like approach, which especially affects medium- to small-sized businesses trying to get access, and that there are exponential costs beyond even the costs of energy and the problems with COVID that have been escalating significantly. Do you have any comments about that or things that we can work on with regard to that? I think it's gone underneath the radar quite a bit because the costs are just getting unreal.

[Henry Chi-Hung Liu]

Thank you.

I think it's hard for me to comment on that because I don't know the cost structure of the shippers. I believe the shippers have to consider the revenue decreases from fewer services. I have seen reports from several countries who have already launched investigations into this process. What the government can say is that we totally welcome this very independent study into this commercial action. If there's any unfair competition, I think every government should take a step forward to protect all the traders in a fair way.

Thank you.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Madam Chair, I'd be interested to know if the researchers could do a snapshot of the costs of container shipments, because if we're looking at trade expansion in this field, most of it's going to be by shipping. I would be interested to get some hard facts on that, because I'm hearing horror stories, especially from medium and small businesses. The Costcos and the Walmarts are purchasing their own fleets. Others that are left to their own devices seem to be really having a rise of those things.

That would be something I'd love to have a snapshot of.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I have a question, Mr. Masse. Did you want the analyst to do that, or for the department to provide that?