Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister for International Trade and has to do with the NAFTA meetings taking place later this week.
I would like to ask the Minister for International Trade why Canada is not seeking either to entirely get rid of the investor state dispute settlement mechanism or to significantly modify it by actually amending the agreement. Why do we read that the minister is willing to settle for an interpretative note? This is certainly a backtracking from what I understand him to have said before and it is certainly inadequate.
Is he willing to change his mind on this and actually seek an amendment to that particular provision, chapter 11 of NAFTA or to eliminate it altogether? That is what is at the heart of what is wrong with NAFTA, and with the MAI when it was still alive.