Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm pleased to have the opportunity to speak today. I think that you're carrying out a vital study for Canada.
I just want to make a few brief comments, and then we can deal with some of the points during the question period.
I know that you are looking at very broad issues, and I really want to talk about some rather smaller issues, if I can put it that way. However, let me just comment on the state of the world as I see it. I'm not a diplomat or an insider, so what I'm saying is based on my experience and knowledge of the trading system.
The problem we're facing is that there are no rules that apply, as far as the United States is concerned. Their policy is to use tariffs, through the president's office. It is a trade policy based on tariffs, and that is what Canada has to face. The reality is that, because of the policies of the U.S. administration—not just the U.S. administration, as there are other factors, but largely because of the policies of the U.S. administration—the WTO as an institution is dysfunctional, and the rules-based system that we used to know no longer exists. That is a fact. That's the way the world is, and Canada has to be prepared to deal with it.
Now, others have some more optimistic views, but that is the way I see it. In my view, that's the challenge Canada has to deal with: a world where the old GATT- and WTO-based rules no longer apply, or at least we cannot have faith in those rules being applied, certainly, by the world's most important economy.
I want to talk about what is happening as a result of the tariff wars that the Trump administration has been waging against the world. We—Canada and our manufacturers—now face a world where huge volumes of product once destined for the United States are on global markets—and I mean it, huge volumes of product. They will find their way into the Canadian market one way or another. Many of those products, not all, are unfairly traded. When I say “unfairly traded”, I mean either dumped or subsidized, and that is putting huge pressures on Canadian manufacturers.
We have a system of trade laws that deal with these—we call them trade remedy laws. They are basically laws that give the private sector the opportunity to take action against unfairly traded products. We have not adjusted our trade remedy laws to deal with the changes in the world order, and that is something this committee, I believe, needs to address. We have those laws—which, as I said, are driven by the private sector—but they are putting enormous burdens on our companies, and I think the committee needs to look at ways in which those laws can be adjusted to take into account the new reality. Those are the trade remedy laws.
We also have laws in Canada that allow the government to respond to international trading circumstances that impact Canada, and those laws can be used by the government in power, by order in council. Those laws also need to be looked at. They can be updated to make them stronger, more certain and more embracive, to deal with a changed world order. This is not the old GATT- or WTO-based order that we knew for decades. It is a new world, and it has put enormous burdens on Canadian companies.
Now, I'm talking about the manufacturing sector. We need to address—and this can be done, I think, by others who are going to be speaking today—a whole range of issues beyond manufacturers, concerning intellectual property, artificial intelligence, etc. There's a whole range of issues concerning sectors other than the manufacturing sector that are at stake.
Canada is faced with a new world, and we have to find ways in which we can effectively deal with those new circumstances.
I'm going to leave it at that, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.