Mr. Speaker, I concur with the member that it is very important to deal with interprovincial trade matters. There are certainly some opportunities there but that is not the subject matter of the bill and it is not a bilateral agreement that we have with the provinces. We are talking here of a bilateral agreement and the speech was really not much
about the bill. If I may I would like to make a couple of comments about what bill this is and ask the member a question.
We are speaking on Bill C-61 put forward by the Minister for International Trade, an act to implement the Canada-Israel free trade agreement. In brief the main elements are: first, tariffs will be removed from industrial products of Canadian or Israeli origin beginning January 1, 1997; second, duty free access or low duties will be applied to a variety of agricultural and fisheries products exported to both countries; finally, to resolve any disputes under the agreement both countries have agreed to be governed by a binding dispute settlement process.
This bilateral trade agreement is extremely important to Canada. For many years Canada and Israel have had excellent relations based on shared values and strong political and social bonds. To give an idea of dimensions, in 1995 the two way trade exceeded $450 million, an increase of 37 per cent over 1994. Canadian exports totalled $216 million in 1995, up 49 per cent from 1994. In terms of the trade the other way, Canadian imports from Israel were worth $240.8 million in 1995, a 32 per cent increase on 1994. These are very significant.
Earlier this day the member from Peace River gave a speech in which he developed a theme which has been coming along about how the government has been slow and why is this such a secretive process and how come this government has not made this an issue and why is it not in the forefront of what is going on.
The facts are that in November 1994 the leaders of Canada and Israel announced the opening of negotiations for this bilateral free trade agreement. On January 12, 1996 Canadian and Israeli officials reached a tentative agreement leading to the formal signing of a free trade agreement in Toronto, during the visit of the minister of industry and trade, of both the state of Israel and Canada.
The facts are that the government has proactively pursued bilateral trade agreements for the benefits of Canada. This government has done its job in this regard.
Does the hon. member not believe that if interprovincial trade within Canada is such an important issue that it would be more important for us now rather than to deal with partisan issues and to ignore the bill to move this bill forward quickly so this House would have more time to talk about further important initiatives? It is time to get the priorities straight. I ask the member, could he stop wasting the House's time and start dealing with the legislation before the House?