Mr. Speaker, it is rather enjoyable that I rise to speak to Bill C-35, an act to amend the Special Import Measures Act.
As the hon. member of the New Democratic Party indicated, major changes have taken place in international trade since the Special Import Measures Act, SIMA, was passed in 1984. The Canada-U.S. free trade agreement, the NAFTA and the WTO agreements are but a few of the major changes. Quite frankly, it was the Progressive Conservative Party which recognized that globalization and global trade was absolutely necessary. If Canada was to retain its high standard of living, it could only be done with rules of trade being set for our trading partners.
The purpose of Bill C-35 is to reflect the changes that have occurred in international trade, especially relating to the anti-dumping measures which protect Canadian industries against potentially unfair practices by our trading partners.
In 1996 a special joint committee on the review of SIMA was struck between the Standing Committee on Finance and the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Both the Bloc and the Reform have written dissenting reports.
It is ironic that the Reform Party's minority report states “We urged the government to resist the demand for getting tough measures with the Americans”. I find that terribly ironic for the simple reason that we are now dealing with a very specific trade dispute in agriculture with the Americans. That same party, which suggests it represents not only the west but agricultural producers, is saying not to go with Bill C-35 and, if we do, let us make sure it is not very tough on our American trading partners. If this is true, the Reform Party must be suggesting that we do nothing about the situation affecting western Manitoba and South Dakota.
I believe we would not have to get tough with Americans if this Liberal government had some influence with its American counterparts. Trade is not a science, it is a relationship that has developed between our trading partners. It makes sure that we have a good two-way line of communication. It makes sure that we have relationships developed with those trading partners and the officials of those trading partners to recognize when there are problems and to resolve those problems without having to go to the NAFTA or the WTO. That is obviously playing a bit of political hardball which, unfortunately, this government does not understand and does not know how to achieve.
The Ministry of Finance responded to the committee in April 1997, accepting about 16 of the recommendations by proposing Bill C-35. Changes to SIMA and the CITT act are intended to rationalize the investigative functions of Revenue Canada and the CITT to better reflect their respective areas of expertise. That was a very good recommendation and it is a very good suggestion within the body of Bill C-35.
Bill C-35 will also allow expert witnesses to play a more effective role in tribunal inquiries. Once again, that is a very positive way of developing trade defences within our systems.
Bill C-35 will also harmonize the way Revenue Canada and the CITT treat disclosure of confidential information. This is to enhance procedural fairness and transparency. It is a very good proposal within Bill C-35.
Bill C-35 will establish new penalty provisions to deter any unauthorized disclosure or misuse of confidential information provided in the SIMA investigation. Bill C-35 will make several housekeeping changes aimed at clarifying existing positions of SIMA and the CITT act, to name a few.
As the fathers of the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement and the NAFTA, obviously our party is in agreement with the broad thrust of bringing SIMA up to date to reflect the current realities of international trade. Since we know that dumping and subsidization are measures still used by foreign governments, we see that there is still a need for SIMA to protect Canadian industries from unfair practices by our trading partners.
However, we have to ensure that laws such as SIMA are reviewed periodically to ensure they achieve the purposes for which they were passed. Rapid developments in international trade can make these laws obsolete and counter-productive very quickly.
More specifically, we are happy that the government agreed to recommendation No. 2, which requests Revenue Canada to take concrete measures to ensure fair and equal access to the SIMA process by small and medium size Canadian producers. This is extremely important as the majority of our economy and the jobs developed in this country are done by small and medium size businesses. That will be implemented through improvements to administrative practices and I appreciate that in fact this bill speaks to that.
It is rather interesting that we are discussing Bill C-35, changes to international trade and corrections to our defence mechanisms because today we are dealing with a very specific issue of trade in western Canada.
Agricultural products in western Canada amount to in excess of $10 billion per year for western Canadian producers and Canadian producers in general. Currently we have a situation in western Canada where there are a number of northern states which are impacting Canadian trade going into the United States of America.
I am very disappointed that the Reform Party in its dissenting report would say “Let us not get tough with our American trading partners; let us politically try to work this out”. Obviously that has not happened because of the ineffective politics that have been practised by the Liberal government.
There are currently non-tariff barriers that are being set up by some governors in the United States. This can be dealt with in fashions other than going through the very lengthy process of the dispute mechanism, going to the WTO and the NAFTA, which the government has been waffling on for the last six months. As of yesterday the minister responsible indicated, by patting himself on the back, that yes we have now filed with the WTO and the NAFTA. The minister indicated that this would be a 10 to 15 day process. That is not factual truth. That simply gets the complaint to the table. There is a long term process with this particular dispute mechanism and it could take months to resolve it.
Western Canadian producers do not have months. They have only days. They sometimes have less than that in order to make sure their product gets to market.
I am very disappointed that the rules which are already in place are not being upheld by our American trading partners. But what it does speak of is the fact that we need rules. It would be terrible if we did not have international trade rules which we could follow. Sometimes people break rules. Sometimes trading partners break rules, as has been identified over the last couple of months with the South Dakota situation.
What we need are rules. Bill C-35 provides a substantial number of those rules on which we as Canadians can depend to protect not only our industries here in Canada, but our exports outside the boundaries of Canada.
I am very pleased to say that Canada has developed global trade. Unlike my colleague from the NDP who suggests that the NAFTA and the Canada-U.S. trade agreement were the worst things that ever happened, I would disagree with him. Because we were not only a partner to those agreements but we were the authors of them, Canadians have a higher standard of living, with the exception of more taxes being paid to this particular government. But I will not get into that particular area.
All of the dollars that are being generated seem to find themselves in the coffers of the federal government, which is not the best place to have them, but that is a debate for another time.
There are 32 million to 35 million Canadians and we require international trading partners in order to sell what we produce outside our domestic marketplace. There is no question that if it was not for the international marketplace we would not have what we have today.
However, if we are to open up the international marketplace there must be rules to that trade. The rules to the trade must be very specific. We have done a very good job with the NAFTA, the Canada-U.S. agreements and the WTO of setting the rules so that Canada will be the benefactor. We have done it very well. I am very pleased to say that happened, in most cases, because of the previous Progressive Conservative government.
Canada must provide its business community with the tools it needs to face international competition. Most important, our ultimate efforts should support the efforts to move forward, eventually making such trade remedy unnecessary. It would be very nice if everybody followed the rules. Ultimately, hopefully, all will follow the rules and this act will not be necessary.
We need to continue trade negotiations with our partners. The South Dakota trade dispute is one recent example which clearly shows there is a need for more work to be done in our trade relationships. In 1999, with the WTO negotiations, we will have a window of opportunity to achieve trade success. If the government develops a comprehensive plan and does not leave things to the last minute, as it did with Kyoto, success can be achieved if there is the political will to do so.
This party supports the amendments put forward in Bill C-35 to amend the Special Import Measures Act.