Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to address Bill C-102, a government bill, and to have Her Majesty's loyal opposition stand before the House to support the bill and to have the Reform Party also stand before the House to support the bill. After four very difficult weeks it is a great day for Canada to bring in a piece of legislation which the major parties and the Government of Canada can support wholeheartedly.
Bill C-102 will amend the Customs Act and the Customs Tariff. It is a bill of language and a bill of clarity; it clearly defines, enhances and streamlines the duty deferral program.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce made interventions in committee that perhaps if we did not bring the bill in on a time line acceptable to business more generally some companies would lose or forfeit the duty they may have paid to Revenue Canada because they could not reclaim on time. We have made adjustments so that this would not be a problem for business.
These changes are designed to help improve the competitive position of Canadian industry and Canadian business. The amendments will allow regions of the country to be more effective in marketing their programs and their products in a competitive manner which allows Canada to attract investment and to keep business at home.
The aim and the strength of the bill lie in its clarification of legislative provisions to make the tariff framework more clear and
to eliminate confusion and ambiguity for Canadian companies, importing companies and travellers.
The bill also prescribes the terms and conditions on which licences for the operation of sufferance warehouses or duty free shops may be issued to include the provision of security which may be required in the operation of these warehouses or shops. It includes the duration of licences and the fees or the manner of determining the fees, if any are to be paid, and for which licences. It is a very specific and clear bill.
The bill also clearly defines the circumstances by which licences for the operation of sufferance warehouses or duty free shops may be issued, in which way they may be amended or suspended, renewed, cancelled or reinstated; the process of accountability.
Bill C-102 also seeks to provide standards for the operation and maintenance of these facilities, sufferance warehouses or duty free shops, and in particular the manner in which the receipt of goods in these warehouses is acknowledged, the circumstances by which and the extent to which goods may be manipulated, altered, unpacked, changed or combined with other goods to make a new product while in the confinement of sufferance warehouses or duty free shops, in a clearly given constituency. The definition of these confinements is also clearly prescribed by these legislative enactments.
This bill and these amendments clearly spell out what are considered designated goods. This clarifies the language and establishes standards for the operation and maintenance of the sufferance warehouses or duty free shops.
Under this bill the framework is laid in which the importer operates his place of business and the respect and manner wherein he maintains his records of operation, his records of imported goods, so that he may be able to make them available to an inspection officer at any given time and answer truthfully to questions in respect of such importations.
The sufferance warehouses and duty free shops are places where imported goods arrive. The manner in which the receipt of these goods is acknowledged, the circumstances and the extent to which these goods may be changed or altered, as I have indicated, is clearly prescribed and defined in this legislation.
These changes should improve efficiency. These changes should reduce the costs of doing business in Canada. These changes allow business, in a very accountable way, to carry on in a very honest and accountable fashion and reduce the red tape for those people who are legitimate business and manufacturing companies here in Canada.
There is one point that was of great contention in the finance committee. That was a point my colleague talked about for a moment, an evaluation provision. Under proposed section 48 of clause 18, the value for duty is a transaction value of the goods if the goods are sold for export to Canada. The transaction value of goods shall be determined by ascertaining the price paid or payable for the goods when the goods are sold for export to Canada. We have changed that. The proposed amendment to subsections 45(1) and 48(1) are that we define the purchaser in Canada. The value for duty of goods is the transaction value of those goods if the goods are sold for export to Canada to a purchaser in Canada. Those are the key words, "a purchaser in Canada", and the price paid or payable for those goods can be determined. This is not a change in the process of doing business here. It is simply a clarification.
I will give an example so that members understand more clearly what our Canada customs officials have been practising for the last decade. If, for example, a foreign manufacturer makes a product valued at $80, that is the price leaving the foreign country. That product may go through several middlemen and maybe there are transaction values added through this process. When the product finally arrives to the Canadian purchaser, its value may be $100. Therefore, which is the value for tariff, the $80 at the foreign country doorstep where it left the foreign country, or the $100 when it arrives at the Canadian doorstep? This amendment clarifies very clearly that the value provision in this amendment is the $100 value, or the value to the purchaser in Canada.
I took a moment to make that clarification because this is not a new change. This is simply a clarification to the existing regulations and the current practices that govern importation of goods in Canada today. It is the practice that has been going on for 10 years. The clearly defined value for duty is the value that has been assigned. I repeat: this value has been used by Canada customs and tariff officials when assigning value for duty for the past decade. All we are doing today in this amendment within this bill is to allow every importer in Canada to know clearly the rules, to allow the value of goods as indicated on the invoice to the purchaser in Canada to be sure that he understands this value to which tariffs and duties will be assigned.
There will be arguments as there were arguments in the debates in committee that the value for duty should be in fact the $80 value that was assigned at the foreign country at the time of export, before the transactions of the middlemen intervened. However, we felt as a committee that the value when it arrives on the Canadian doorstep is the value when all transactions have been incurred.
Presentations were made to our committee by both the Canadian Importers Association and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants in opposition to this bill, and more specifically to this very section, "purchaser in Canada". They said this is a residency requirement, this is new. We argued that it was not new, that it was simply clarification, identifying the purchaser in Canada, and that it had been the practice of Customs and Tariffs Canada for the past
decade; it was simply clarification and we were in compliance, not confrontation, with our world trading partners.
I elaborate on that point because it was very important and a great point of clarification. It sends a message to our businesses in Canada, our manufacturing businesses, where we have value added jobs, that here at home we will do our utmost to protect those jobs through good legislation that is acceptable to our global trading partners.
The bill introduces tariff reductions on a broad range of goods used as input into Canadian manufacturing operations, thereby bringing our input tariffs more in line with those of the United States. It does reduce tariffs on many finished goods that are required and requested by Canadian producers.
Part of our red book commitment was to reduce government red tape and streamline government operations so that business in Canada could be more efficient and we could provide manufacturing jobs in a more competitive global economy. That is what Bill C-102 does.
Bill C-102 allows Canadian travellers to bring back to Canada after their absences abroad goods of increased value. This will bring Canadian travellers' exemptions into line with those of our major trading partners and for administrative purposes ease border congestion. We know the majority of those travellers are honest, law-abiding citizens. This bill allows that to occur with more ease and allows us to spend greater time on those who are involved in criminal offences and criminal activities.
This is a positive step forward for Canadian legislation. It is a positive step forward for our Canada-U.S. agreements and our shared border commitments to ensure that activities between these two peaceful countries occur with ease and with the greatest efficiency for both countries.
Other amendments to the customs tariff or the Customs Act contained in this bill are aimed at clarifying the intent of certain legislation or involve changes to make the tariff framework clearer and more predictable for Canadian companies and the importing community. Those are very important words, "more predictable", when one is in business.
I had the experience of being in a manufacturing biological business for some 25 years. I was a co-founder in Nova Scotia of a scientific company, a tremendous challenge of a high tech biological company in a part of the country that is known for its hewers of wood and drawers of water. It was a challenge indeed, but we established that company and were able to provide scientific jobs for young Canadians in Atlantic Canada.
I know the value of predictability and stability in regulations on importation of goods into a manufacturing process. It is all part of maintaining jobs, maintaining accountability to employees, and maintaining a stable marketplace and economy for all Canadians.
These amendments will afford protection to our manufacturing jobs and enhance the capacity to which we can export, which is what Canada is so well known for. These amendments clean up the wording of the act so that importers in Canada, those who own businesses, and Canadians who are travellers will understand and appreciate the regulations more clearly. The clarification and wording are clearly conforming with our trading partners, not confronting them, as some might suggest.
These are progressive amendments. In an accountable and trustworthy business trading partnership they enhance Canada's credibility in competitive global trade. I am very pleased to hear this morning that all parties of this House will support this legislation.
I am eager. I am very pleased to be on the finance committee and to have heard the arguments on both sides to bring this into the House and let our business community in Canada know that we are progressive.
We are listening. We are reducing the red tape. We are trying to streamline so that business can be competitive, so that we can ensure those Canadian jobs in all regions and make Canada the number one place economically that we are forecast to be in the next couple of years.