Mr. Speaker, it is a great pleasure for me to speak today on Bill C-102. As a member of the St. Catharines promotion task force prior to my election as MP and one who had worked on free trade zones in the U.S., it gives me great pleasure to be able to speak today as a member of Parliament on the bill.
I would be remiss if I did not give credit to a number of committee members in St. Catharines: Don Chambers, Don Johnston, Don Wiley, Ian Spraggon, James Wakil and Mike Haines who helped in the work on free trade zones.
Free trade zones in the U.S. are right across the border from us. There are six free trade zones with which the Niagara area has to compete. It is not only the fact that they are free trade zones but the Association of Free Trade Zones meets directly across the border in Buffalo.
While doing some research and working on the committee it was interesting to note the advantages of free trade zones that were published in the U.S: land and store imported goods quickly without full custom formalities; wait until goods leave the zone to pay duty; display goods in showrooms in the zone and have buyers inspect and sample merchandise; process, assemble and otherwise process goods to qualify for lower duty; when manufacturing in a foreign trade zone choose the most advantageous type of duty and quota limitations; salvage or repair damaged goods duty and quota free while finding a suitable market; and store goods indefinitely to await the best market conditions. These are only some of the advantages proposed by free trade zones in the U.S.
Curiously the six free trade zones across from the Niagara area were all started by a Canadian, George Keitner, from Montreal. I give him credit for starting free trade zones. In the previous government he could not get his point across that in addition to free trade and NAFTA we had to work out the details in the accounting systems of our country. It seems that those details were not taken care of back home.
We had consultations and worked with various communities across the country. I had the pleasure of working with members from the communities of Vancouver, Calgary, Newfoundland, St. Catharines and Montreal. Consultations with businesses have accommodated Bill C-102. More important, business, industry and manufacturing people played a part in the changes.
Other advantages were the streamlining and consolidating of duty deferral programs in the customs tariff; making the paperwork more user friendly; making it easier on cash flow; and, more important, allowing various businesses in regions and municipalities to effectively market their programs from their areas.
We all have various opportunities in our communities, no matter where we come from as members of Parliament. The bill will allow various teams in communities to create their focus and exporting niche. We have different products across the country so we can all take advantage of additional exports.
As cited in the foreign affairs and international trade report last spring, creating and promoting an international orientation for business in Canada should be a priority objective. Bill C-102 helps meet that objective by providing access to the program by the businesses and communities I mentioned earlier and by allowing the economic development programs to flourish. It does not restrict. It assists business manufacturers to make things happen. Of course in the end this means jobs for Canada.
I especially like the wording of the bill. As my colleague across the way mentioned, the bill is quite thick. Current inward processing allows the relief of customs duties and the various taxes and excise taxes and enables the cost of doing business to come down. The bill also allows new manufacturers and new start-up companies to get into the business instead of having a history on which they have to report. Having new businesses getting into exports allows us to build our international export trade.
Streamlining customs duties and requirements will make it much easier for our manufacturers. We will have to build in accountability but it is better to build in accountability rather than restrictions.
I am reminded when we toured many of the free trade zones in the U.S. of the physical barrier requirement. In Bill C-102 no physical barrier will be required. It will be an easy and simple system, created as such so that our manufacturing strength in Canada can be improved even further on the export markets.
I am also reminded imported goods and domestic goods can be used interchangeably. Many of the items previous speakers have mentioned will be advantageous. After touring some 60 free trade zones in the U.S. and having discussions with various people, the government in the co-operation with the users of the bill has made a substantial improvement on how we do business in Canada.
As mentioned before, it is the duty of the Government of Canada to assist business in making things happen. In the bonded warehouse provisions, activities currently provided for in the bonded warehouse legislation such as storage, packaging, repackaging, labelling, normal maintenance, servicing, complying with any applicable law of Canada and testing of same will continue. There are also improvements. The government needs to continue to look at our systems, in this case duty deferral and remission programs, and make continuous improvements as we go along.
Over time product research and product lifecycles change. Therefore our accounting system needs to change. In the proposal storage time has been increased to four years, which will allow various businesses and companies in the manufacturing sector to determine their own productivity planning, to determine their own productivity cycles, rather than the system telling them how to produce.
In previous discussions I mentioned the 60 free trade zones with which our committee exchanged information. In this government proposal and the submission put forward we have taken the best of many free trade zones and incorporated them into our structure. It is a team Canada approach to making things happen.
As a result we will increase our exports. More and more companies and businesses will see that although their competitors may be unproductive they will be co-operating as they export more and more products around the world. We are into a global situation and these improvements are perfect timing as we look forward to next year's budget.
I bring to the attention of the House how manufacturing will benefit from this proposal. Often we take manufacturing and manufacturing jobs lightly. We forget that some 1.8 million Canadians are directly employed in manufacturing and over 2 million depend on our industry for their livelihood. Almost 50 per cent of goods manufactured in Canada are exported. In 1980 it was 25 per cent and now it is 50 per cent.
I also bring to the attention of the House that some 75 per cent of the research and development in the private sector is done in manufacturing.
With the assistance of Bill C-102 I am sure that many manufacturing businesses will take advantage of the system because the cost of doing business will be reduced. When we reduce the cost of doing business we allow for more business to be done and we can compete on a world scale.
The government continues to work to remove paperwork and make the system more effective. It helps companies and businesses to spend their time on sales, research and productivity. It will improve exports, Canadian quality and costs, making us even more competitive. As I mentioned earlier, jobs in Canada will be improved by exports without a major cost or expenditure by the
government. There is a way to improve the employment situation and make things happen.
I commend the finance department for all the work it has done on the bill. It is obvious that with support from the three previous speakers and working together as Canadians we can improve our system in Canada and complete on a global level.