Thank you, Madam Chair.
We've heard testimony here that this bill seeks to entrench Canada's position, which is to not negotiate away access to supply management, but we've also heard that is Canada's position unless it needs to grant access to supply-managed sectors in order to conclude a trade agreement. We heard that from government officials with respect to the renewal of USMCA. If dairy were off the table, would that have been renewed? The answer is somewhere along the lines of highly unlikely. I think the same thing could be said for CPTPP: If no access to the supply management sector had been granted, then CPTPP would not have been concluded.
What this amendment does is to actually codify what Canada's policy is, which is that we will not negotiate on supply management unless we have absolutely no other choice. That's what this amendment seeks to do.
We heard extensively from stakeholders about their concerns with the absolute nature of this bill. Tree of Life suggested this:
If this Bill becomes law, it will remove the ability of Canada’s trade negotiators to properly assess the costs and benefits of potential trade-offs in the context of negotiations as well as run the risk of damaging our relationships with our valued trading partners.
The Canadian Canola Growers Association have said this:
If passed, Canada’s attractiveness as an FTA partner would diminish, adversely impacting Canada’s ability to launch and enter new negotiations. Canada’s leverage in successfully renewing CUSMA under President Trump or in negotiating membership to and conclusion of CPTPP would have been greatly diminished if such a Bill were in place.