Evidence of meeting #33 for International Trade in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A video is available from Parliament.
1:55 p.m.
Liberal
October 28th, 2022 / 1:55 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Madam Minister.
Minister, you said something that concerned me in a response to Mr. Seeback. When we were talking about the Indo-Pacific economic framework for prosperity, you said that we would be ready when the “right conditions are present”.
Minister, President Biden launched this in May of this year. He invited Australia, Brunei, Dar es Salaam, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore—
1:55 p.m.
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
I have a point of order, Madam Chair. The interpreter can't interpret the member's remarks.
1:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Excuse me. Can you hold it for a second, please? We have translation problems.
We have to suspend for a few minutes to make sure that translation is functioning properly.
Sorry, Mr. Carrie, we'll put your time back at the beginning again.
2 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
I call the meeting back to order.
Mr. Carrie, can you keep your camera off and continue with your questioning, please?
2 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
My question was for the minister. In terms of her comment that she's waiting for the right conditions to be present, this initiative was launched just in May, and the president invited a number of different countries. In response, Minister Joly has asked to join, and there is support for that from the Americans, but Secretary Blinken was very clear and said he has to consult with the other members who were in from day one.
Minister, in trade you don't wait for the proper conditions to be present; you have to go and make those conditions. I'm asking what you and your department are doing now. When is the next meeting for us to be inside the room, not outside the room?
2 p.m.
Liberal
Mary Ng Liberal Markham—Thornhill, ON
I want to clarify that I didn't say we were going to wait for conditions. That is what I did say with respect to softwood, because it was in response to what the industry had told me that they wanted, which is a good deal, not any deal. Just for clarification, that's what I said.
With respect to IPEF, we are absolutely inside the tent with the Asia-Pacific. We're also inside the tent with the United States of America. You've seen us successfully negotiate a good deal for Canada in CUSMA. You have seen us include the Canadian auto industry in the EV credits. You are seeing Canada with a strong progressive agreement with the CPTPP countries and looking to increase market access with others. That is what we are doing. We are working with the United States robustly. We are working with them on supply chain resiliency and we're working with them on clean energy decarbonization, on infrastructure. We're working with them on taxation and anti-corruption. We're working on a whole host of work that was laid out between the President and the Prime Minister on the road map for Canada and the U.S. That work continues.
So does the work in Canada in creating opportunities in the Indo-Pacific, and of course we're going to work with the United States. I've been talking to the United States trade representative on this front and so has Minister Joly, and she made that public yesterday with Secretary Blinken.
2 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
Secretary Blinken was clear that he couldn't allow us in until he talked to the other members, who were invited by day one.
My point, Minister, was that being on the outside looking in on this important agreement is not the way we want to go, and I asked you when the next meetings are for us to be at the table to get into this important agreement that would really affect our future supply chains.
2 p.m.
Liberal
Mary Ng Liberal Markham—Thornhill, ON
The commitment I can make to you, sir, is that working with the United States to grow our trade in a way that will also deal with climate change is what we're going to be doing. We're also going to be doing that with our colleagues in the Indo-Pacific. We do that through the Ottawa Group with some of those members who are also a part of this arrangement. The point is that Canada is at the table everywhere.
2 p.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
But there is no meeting. You can confirm that there are no meetings with the group to get us in.
2 p.m.
Liberal
Mary Ng Liberal Markham—Thornhill, ON
What I'm saying is that Canada continues to work to expand our growth.
2 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Thank you very much, Mr. Carrie.
We go now to Mr. Sarai for five minutes please.
2:05 p.m.
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC
I have a point of order, Madam Chair. There is no interpretation. The member's remarks aren't audible.
2:05 p.m.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
I'm sorry; my boom was up. I apologize. I was caught off guard there.
Minister, my question is this. Canada, the United States and Mexico created the largest free trade region in the world, generating economic growth and helping raise the standard of living for people of all three countries. The Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, CUSMA, serves to reinforce our strong economic ties in the United States and Mexico. It preserves key elements of the long-lasting trading relationship and incorporates new and updated provisions for the 21st century.
Can you tell us what makes CUSMA a unique trading agreement compared to others and how Canadian businesses leverage CUSMA? I know you mentioned earlier about how trade has gone up even more. How can CUSMA help access more customers across North America?
2:05 p.m.
Liberal
Mary Ng Liberal Markham—Thornhill, ON
North American competitiveness is incredibly important. This relationship is a really strong one. I think CUSMA has strengthened the way in which the three countries are working together. We have an incredible network of trade commissioners and mission teams across the United States that help our Canadian businesses go abroad. I can't overemphasize how important that is, because we have seen a trillion dollars of trade go into the United States—$1.9 trillion if you include Mexico.
What we need to see more of is growth through small and medium-sized enterprises, which find navigating into the United States or into international markets quite challenging. I am really thrilled that there is an SME chapter negotiated into CUSMA. There is a committee dedicated to that. They hosted a conference in the U.S. last year that brought together all three countries so that they can put tools together that will ultimately better help those businesses grow into each other's markets. This work is infinitely important, because I think the numbers for the U.S. and Mexico are not different from what they are in Canada.
As 98% of all our businesses are small and medium-sized businesses, helping them to get the advantage of exporting into those markets is really important. This trade agreement provides the mechanisms for doing so.
2:05 p.m.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
Thank you, Minister.
Minister, I'm a big fan of EV and solar. Canada seems to have won on that issue with the U.S. We saw all-time highs in trade volumes between the two nations.
The committee, I think, is set to undertake a study on the impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. Can you detail to the committee some of the policy advocacy that you undertook to reverse the original U.S. position, and what it means to our auto sector and labour sectors?
I particularly am concerned to have an EV motorcycle plant that is being built right here in Surrey, British Columbia. This is very important news for them in terms of getting access to the U.S. market.
2:05 p.m.
Liberal
Mary Ng Liberal Markham—Thornhill, ON
I said earlier to everyone here on the committee how appreciative we are, because this is one file where we really worked as team Canada. We were completely focused on making sure that Canada was included in these important credits that will ultimately incentivize American consumers to buy electric vehicles, and electric vehicles that are made in Canada are such an important part of the Canadian economy and the auto sector.
What this has enabled us to do, of course, is attract the kinds of investments for the battery ecosystem that is now in Canada. Week after week, month after month, you're seeing our government make announcements of the investments—whether it's through BASF or others—that are coming into Canada to develop the battery ecosystem. It's really good to see, then, in the Inflation Reduction Act that the critical minerals that will come out of Canada will also be part of that supply chain in the creation of EVs.
A lot of work went into ensuring that Canada was carved into this and into maintaining a very important supply chain. I often reminded the Americans that a car probably crosses seven or eight times over our Canadian and United States border before it comes off the production line as final. That means workers on this side of the border and on that side of the border are working on it. It means that in the future, the critical minerals that will go into making the batteries are going to come into Canada and be processed and make their way into those vehicles. It means that for your motorcycles, that battery ecosystem is going to be key. So will the critical minerals. They will be key in this lucrative market of which we continue to be a part through this integrated supply chain of what is all of us, I would say, as Team Canada.
Again, it was members of this committee. It was all of us on all sides of the House. It was different levels of government. It was industry itself, the auto sector itself, the parts folks, the labour representatives, the labour unions and the workers themselves, so it really was team Canada.
2:10 p.m.
Liberal
2:10 p.m.
Conservative
Tony Baldinelli Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Minister, thank you for being here.
If I go back, the first question I ever had a chance to ask in Parliament when I was elected in 2019 had to do with the Australian WTO challenge to the 2006 excise exemption on 100% Canadian-made wine.
Flowing from that decision was the need to create a replacement program, and $101 million was first committed by the government in budget 2021. That was then raised in 2022 when the formal trade-compliant replacement program was created.
The problem, Minister, is that it's only a two-year program, and the sector is looking for certainty. Budget 2022 showed that the government, because of the elimination of the excise exemption, would be generating $390 million over a five-year period.
My question for you right now is from my stakeholders, the grape and wine growers and the industry producers. They are looking for certainty to see whether our trade-compliant program will be extended past those two years and whether the government will commit to extending that $390 million to the producers and growers.
2:10 p.m.
Liberal
Mary Ng Liberal Markham—Thornhill, ON
I remember the question, and I love your part of the country.
The grape and wine growers are incredibly important, and I too, and my team, have met with them.
The issue of being compliant is a real one, but what I want to do is assure those very important stakeholders that we will continue to work with them. We've always been working with them, right from the get-go, including getting to the solution that ultimately ended up with the WTO decision sort of going away as it did.
We're just going to have to keep working with the industry, and I think our track record is really good on that front. My office, my team and I have consistently been working and providing solutions.