International Trade Committee on Nov. 7th, 2023

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

You have about 30 seconds, if you would like to—

[Tony Baldinelli, Conservative, Niagara Falls, ON]

I'll cede my time.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

Can I take the 30 seconds, Chair?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

Yes.

[Matt Jeneroux, Conservative, Edmonton Riverbend, AB]

I know we have a meeting coming up on Thursday. Could we get the list of witnesses for that? It would be helpful.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

That will be provided to all members of the committee.

We will now move on to our final round of questioning.

Ms. Fortier, you have five minutes.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

It's actually not me.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

You changed it again.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I switched.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

Okay. I misunderstood.

We'll let Mr. Sidhu go.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks again to our witnesses for taking the time to be here today.

I understand that the government conducted public consultations on the possible modernization of CUFTA back in 2020, and I know you heard from a wide array of stakeholders. Could you update our committee on the feedback that was received from business stakeholders, and maybe the agriculture sector? How will this agreement benefit them?

[Bruce Christie]

Absolutely. Thank you for your question.

Throughout our consultations with Canadian stakeholders, we heard, I would say, complete support for Canada to move forward with a modernized free trade agreement. The specific area that we heard about from the business community was the importance of including provisions on investments and services, as they would have liked to see them included in the original CUFTA. We have strong support voiced to include those chapters.

We also heard through our consultations that there was support for including some of the inclusive trade chapters. These would be trade and gender, trade and SMEs, and trade and indigenous peoples. I wasn't part of all of those discussions.

Dean, I don't know if there's anything else we heard from our stakeholders in terms of what they'd like to see included.

[Dean Foster]

I would just add that some of the sectors that have expressed interest in the agreement in the context of Ukraine's reconstruction activities include infrastructure, natural resources, financial services and energy firms. They all see the agreement as supportive of trade expansion.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Thank you for that.

What about civil society and labour unions? How will this agreement benefit them? I know there's a chapter on that as well.

[Dean Foster]

I understand that labour stakeholders are supportive. Our indigenous groups that we work with regularly are also supportive of the trade and indigenous peoples chapter, as well as our trade and gender advisory group. Those are some examples.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Could you provide our committee with an overview on the updated chapter on digital trade, and how it will improve trade between Canada and Ukraine?

[Bruce Christie]

Okay. Thank you very much.

In the original CUFTA agreement, we had an e-commerce chapter. An expanded digital trade chapter ensures that customs duties will not be applied to digital products transmitted electronically, so that commitment that Canada has continued to promote at the WTO will be protected in this bilateral agreement.

It also expands on the previous chapter on e-commerce by including commitments related to cross-border data flows, data localization, source code disclosure, open government data and personal data information and protection. It also improves the regulatory certainty for businesses seeking to engage in the digital economy. It's much more expansive in the coverage from the initial chapter on e-commerce.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

Mr. Christie, you had mentioned that the Ukrainian leadership, Canadian leadership here in Canada and business community stakeholders want us to pass this ASAP to help with the reconstruction. Is that the case that you'd want to amplify here as well?

[Bruce Christie]

Absolutely. None of us know how long this war in Ukraine will drag on, but having a free trade agreement implemented, where our service providers, companies and producers can engage on the ground floor to help Ukraine with the reconstruction efforts, positions us well to do so.

[Maninder Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton East, ON]

It's pretty much unanimous—I know the opposition here has to do their job as well—that stakeholders, governments in both countries and the Ukrainian community want this to pass right away. I think that's important for the record and for those who are watching at home.

Thank you so much for your time.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

Thank you, Mr. Sidhu.

I'm going to use the chair's prerogative to briefly ask one question.

What's included in a free trade agreement? In this free trade agreement in particular, what's included and what's not included are decided by two things: one, the government's negotiating mandate and, two, what the other party does or does not want in the agreement. Is that a good summary?

[Bruce Christie]

I would think so, Mr. Chair.

Canada holds exploratory discussions at the outset to get a sense of what the scope and parameters of an agreement would look like, whether our sensitive areas can be accommodated in an agreement and how our offensive versus defensive interests align. At the end of the day, those provisions and that flexibility as a negotiator are guided by our cabinet mandate.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Kyle Seeback]

Thank you very much.

With that, ladies and gentlemen, I believe I'll adjourn.