Mr. Speaker, earlier in the member's remarks he expressed some concern about the fact that in China the salaries paid are as low as $4 an hour. The member wondered how we could compete against those wages.
I would remind the member that when Canada entered into the North American Free Trade Agreement we were and are competing with Mexico which has a similar wage rate. I do not know the exact wage rates but they certainly are below our standards.
One of the reasons that we in this party have been opposed to that is because there are insufficient environmental and labour law protections in agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization.
Why does the member's party not insist on having those kinds of rules and regulations in place before we get into these kinds of agreements with countries that have substandard laws, rules and regulations in contrast to our own?