Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity today to respond, on behalf of the Progressive Conservative Party, to Bill S-16 which will allow Canada to ratify tax conventions and tax treaties with Croatia, Chile and Vietnam.
Canada, as everyone is aware, is a trading nation. Last year our exports totalled some $344 billion. Our imports were up around $329 billion. That gives us some indication of how important trading is to Canada.
While the majority of our trade has traditionally involved the United States, we do have trade and we do have investment treaties and ties with virtually every nation on the face of the earth, including the countries mentioned in the bill.
Therefore, it is vital that trade and investment be promoted and carried out with the maximum degree of certainty that we can possibly have both for us and for our partners.
Over the last quarter century Canada has sought to expand on a number of tax agreements it has with other nations, especially with the countries mentioned in the bill. That has been the policy, as we are all very much aware, of both Liberal and Conservative administrations. We have now reached a point where we have 70 such agreements in place. That is pretty impressive.
Such tax treaties have two main goals. They sort out who has the right to collect which amount of tax when a business or person residing in one country earns money in another country. They also ensure that taxes that are paid in one country are recognized by the other country.
One knows, for example, what withholding tax to expect on income that one takes out of that country. As a result, one can invest and earn income in the secure knowledge that the foreign country will not make it impossible for one to bring home one's profits by imposing new and unexpected withholding taxes.
The result is that business and individual investors can pretty well feel secure that they can invest internationally with confidence and that they will not have their profits withheld. That is an important economic objective, whether it be through treaties such as these or through trade agreements such as NAFTA, the World Trade Organization or the proposed free trade agreement of the Americas.
Such treaties prevent tax evasion. They allow the free flow of information and encourage communication between individual countries that is needed to catch individuals and corporations that are evading tax. This is a result, I am sure we could all agree, everyone would be in favour of.
The member for Kings—Hants, the finance critic for the Progressive Conservative Party, knows full well the benefits of international trade. They are well known to all members of the Conservative Party. It was the PC government, incidentally, that designed the the North America Free Trade Agreement.
The PC Party also liberalized trade in telecommunications for Canadian business. The Liberals who were in opposition at that time were opposed outright to the notion of opening up Canada to the rest of the world. Now we are all aware they have had a great conversion. They have seen the light. They are quite pleased to associate themselves with the North America Free Trade Agreement. Very often the Prime Minister uses every opportunity, whether at home or abroad, to promote that agreement. Just recently we saw the Prime Minister actually take credit for negotiating the free trade agreement.
On numerous occasions our finance critic has risen in the House to remind the government and the Prime Minister that the Liberals are born again free traders. Now that it has become fashionable, the Prime Minister and his government cannot get enough of international trade and discuss it at every opportunity.
The PC Party was the party that took the initiative when issues such as free trade were not fashionable because we knew that it was in the best interest of Canada. Also the PC Party was the party that let Atlantic Canada prosper under more liberalized trade both within Canada and other nations around the world.
Free trade has created a prosperous economy and has created thousands and thousands of jobs in Atlantic Canada for which the Minister of Finance is currently taking credit as he did in the House yesterday.
It is encouraging to see the Liberal Party of Canada finally seeing the light and supporting the very ideas the Conservative government embraced as the best bet for the future of Canada.
The Conservative Party has no problem with the bill. It is a good bill and Canada will be better off for it.