Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House to speak to the foreign investment promotion and protection agreement. This is a very important issue. I am quite pleased that my colleague, the international trade critic for the official opposition, moved this motion calling on this House not to support the agreement that has been entered into, but not yet ratified by Canada.
I have only 10 minutes; five minutes before question period and five after. I would like to go over four key aspects of the agreement and certain parameters surrounding it. If I had more time, I would talk more about the problems with this agreement, but the four points I am raising are, in my mind, the biggest problems with this agreement. These points are the reason that I, as the member for Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, agree to the motion and therefore reject the premise of the agreement proposed by the Conservative government.
The first point is the Conservative government's claim that the foreign investment promotion and protection agreement will protect foreign investment and encourage more investment. One very clear item in the agreement leads us to believe that the agreement will actually discourage investment, Canadian investment in China in particular. Investment might not be discouraged, but it is not being encouraged either.
Let us compare two articles in particular. One is about the most favoured nation. In short, it ensures that the party the government is signing the agreement with is given the same general or minimum protection that the government gives to other countries with which it already has agreements. I want to compare this article with the one on national treatment, which specifies that businesses protected in our territory must receive the same treatment as businesses from here. I will read both articles.
The article on most-favoured-nation treatment states that:
Each Contracting Party shall accord to investors of the other Contracting Party treatment no less favourable than that it accords, in like circumstances, to investors of a non-Contracting Party with respect to the establishment, acquisition, expansion, management, conduct, operation and sale or other disposition of investments in its territory.
In contrast, the article on national treatment states that:
Each Contracting Party shall accord to investors of the other Contracting Party treatment no less favourable than that it accords, in like circumstances, to its own investors with respect to the expansion, management, conduct, operation and sale or other disposition of investments in its territory.
There is a fundamental difference between these two articles, which I admit are very technical. With regard to national treatment, the agreement does not give the same rights to investors who are getting established or acquiring new companies and therefore making new investments.
That means that, under the terms and conditions of the agreement before us, companies that want to invest in China will not have as much protection as companies that already have investments in China. Clearly, the opposite is also true. Chinese companies that are already investing in Canada have the same rights as a Canadian company. However, Chinese companies that will invest in Canada in the future will not have the same rights as Chinese companies that are already investing in Canada.
As a result, the agreement will protect the $5 billion in investments that we currently have in China, but it will not provide as much protection for future investments that Canadian investors want to make in China. The problem is that Canadian businesses in China are not getting nearly as much protection as Chinese companies and investors that are currently in Canada.
In 2011, we had only about $5 billion worth of investments in China, whereas China had over $22 billion worth of investments in Canada in 2012. From the outset, the agreement is not providing equal protection. This demonstrates a lack of reciprocity and is a blatant problem with the agreement before us today.
I would like to address another aspect that the hon. member for Vancouver Kingsway and the official opposition critic for international trade spoke about, and that is the changes being made to non-conforming measures in trade agreements in general.
This agreement allows countries, including China, to keep these measures that do not conform to international treaties.
I will come back to this after question period.