International Trade Committee on Feb. 14th, 2022

[Darren Smith]

Yes, thank you for the question.

I'll just quickly add that it includes areas like business visitors, inter-company or inter-corporate transferees, other specialists and potentially spouses. Basically, we're providing for greater certainty and predictability.

In this case, it is really a market access change where we're seeing liberalization take effect, so it is definitely an area that we see as being conducive to facilitating work in goods exports, investment, services, government procurement and other areas. It will be a feature of the agreement.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Mr. Allen, you mentioned that this modernization will increase the benefits for Canadian workers, entrepreneurs and small business. Can you just highlight how it can increase the benefits?

[Jay Allen]

Sure. The existing agreement is really focused around goods trade. These other elements that it will open up to our services providers are services that relate to goods trade. In a lot of cases, you sell a product, but then you want to do the services afterwards. We're looking to modernize the government procurement provisions, which will allow more Canadians to sell more product into Ukraine.

It really is about creating more opportunities.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Lastly, I know the situation is quite fluid and dynamic over there. We have said we are going to launch it.

Typically, if there are no issues on the ground, how much time does it take to conduct a review in this case, which is basically adding service investments to the existing agreement?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Can we have a brief answer, Mr. Allen?

[Jay Allen]

Yes.

Typically, a trade negotiation takes a long time, in part because goods are very sensitive. This should be a much shorter timeline, assuming we can get there to do it, but I can't give an exact figure for how long.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Monsieur Savard-Tremblay, do you have any additional questions?

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

I'd like to ask a quick question, if I may, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Yes.

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

On the Government of Canada's website, the words “security” and “stability” are used in reference to the effort to strengthen and modernize the Canada–Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.

In spite of this, Canada has more trade with Russia than it does with Ukraine. Seemingly, a new bilateral agreement would have a punitive—arguably, even aggressive—objective vis-à-vis Russia. Doesn't such an agreement play into the hands of our adversaries by isolating Russia, provoking it further and pushing it closer to China?

[Jay Allen]

We have an existing trade agreement with Ukraine. It's been in place for a number of years. We've been working on it since 2010. It was a long time in the making, so I don't think this addition will change anything. I think it is a very clear signal of our support for Ukraine and our continued belief in their integrity and their sovereignty.

I don't look at it from the perspective that it's going to hurt relations with Russia or have any geopolitical effect from that standpoint. I think it's emboldening the people of Ukraine. It's us standing with them, not against somebody else.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Masse, do you have any additional questions?

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

I have just one quick one, Madam Chair.

Aside from the energy sector and the obvious dependency between Ukraine and Russia there, are there any other sectors that have that type of dependency between the two nations that would become even more complicated should hostilities continue to ramp up?

[Jay Allen]

I'll turn to Mr. Turner on that one.

[Andrew Turner]

As with any neighbouring countries, there are many economic ties between the two countries. The reality is that, should Russia proceed with military action, that will have massively destabilizing consequences for the entirety of the economy, and much beyond that, of course, for Ukraine. Likewise, because of the very severe and significant reaction that there will be from the international community, the same will occur for Russia as well.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Yes, but is there something like grain or something else that sticks out larger? Obviously, energy is one, but is there some other trading component for which there might be some strategic requirement for allied nations to try to enhance that trade? I just threw out grain because it's just another example of local produce.

[Andrew Turner]

Certainly Ukraine's exports of grain are quite significant, but I must confess I'm not sure if they are specifically to Russia. That is something I can look into and get back to the committee on.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

That's fine. That's fair enough. I just was curious about that.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you, Mr. Masse.

We move to Mr. Martel. He has one question.

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

Madam Chair, the witnesses seemed a bit confused in response to my questions earlier. What I was trying to get at was this: one of the central elements of the conflict is independence, not only for our allies, but also for Ukraine in terms of energy.

This time, my question is straightforward. Could increasing our LNG exports to our allies, including Ukraine, reduce their reliance on Russia, while giving them more latitude in a possible conflict?

[Jay Allen]

Madam Chair, I would expect so, yes. If we were to increase our LNG exports, it would certainly reduce dependence on Russian natural gas.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Hoback, you may ask one last question.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Thank you, Chair. I have a very quick question.

I'm just seeing—it's breaking news here now, colleagues. The PM has confirmed 7.1 million dollars' worth of lethal equipment to Ukraine and a new $500-million loan to Ukraine. I'm just kind of curious when I see something like this happen.

To the negotiators, how's the process in regard to this lethal equipment being confirmed? How does that go about? Does it impact our trade processes in your negotiating of a new deal? Does it come into consideration?

[Jay Allen]

No. In fact, something like that would be squarely outside of the trade agreement.

I would turn to Mr. Turner for more information on that, but I will simply say that's not the type of thing that's included in an FTA.