Mr. Speaker, my friend in the NDP has a tendency to bend the statement I made a bit. I said that the government was taking action and that the minister responsible for human resources was taking action on the whole question of child poverty.
I said that we could not change the game halfway through. I suggested that the issue was not agreed to in Marrakech. What we signed did not include that issue. A future agreement or a future debate might take place around the issue. I think the hon. member would suggest that it would be unwise for us to take a unilateral action as a country and add a new amendment to our legislation; but for him to say that we are not concerned about child poverty is not fair and not warranted.
I go back to some of the comments made concerning the whole notion of dumping and anti-dumping. The new disciplines on the treatment of dumped goods will not impair the Canadian ability to respond to exporters that dump goods into the Canadian market when such dumping threatens or causes injury to Canadian industry. The new discipline should however reduce the scope for the harassment of Canadian export interests resulting from unfair dumping duty actions by our trading partners.
I also add that our existing dumping action will be continued under the new system as if it had been made under that system. Any continuation of an injury finding will be made in accordance with the new anti-dumping agreement. It is not expected to put an increased burden on Canadian authorities. They already operate in a system which for the most part conforms to the new rules.
There was a reference to the American legislation. I assure the House and Canadians that we are examining, have examined in the past and will continue to examine all moves and changes or proposed changes to the American legislation in terms of language or statement to ensure that they are consistent with the NAFTA as well as with the World Trade Organization agreement.
Should Canadian interests be harmed for whatever reason by any provisions which are inconsistent with our right under the international trade agreement we will take appropriate action. Two wrongs do not make a right. If somebody has gone beyond the agreement in introducing changes to our laws and regulations to divert from the agreement does not mean that we should be doing the same. As a government and as a society we have to fulfil our commitment under the World Trade Organization agreement.
The proposal suggested by the opposition member is inconsistent with the World Trade Organization. First, pursuant to article 3.7 of the agreement, implementation of article 6 of the act, the anti-dumping agreement, and article 15.7 of the World Trade Organization agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures, the specific factors listed in the motion are threat or injury factors. Adoption of the motion in our opinion would extend the application of these factors to injury and retardation in a manner inconsistent with the World Trade Organization specifically. Article 3.4 of the anti-dumping agreement and article 15.4 of the subsidy agreement require examination of a much larger list of factors in the broader determination of injury.
Second, with respect to the threat of injury, a list of factors will be set out in regulations being prepared under the authority of the new subparagraph 97.1(1)(a) which allows for full consideration of the factors set out in the hon. member's motion.
Third, the reference to the Minister of Industry in prescribing injury or causation factors should be deleted since he is nowhere else specifically mentioned in SIMA and the regulation making authority under SIMA is the responsibility of the Minister of Finance.
For these reasons and what I clearly stated earlier we are recommending rejection of the motion.