Mr. Speaker, I want to ask the parliamentary secretary to return to first principles. The whole idea of an investor-state dispute mechanism is to deal with countries that are relatively lawless, the idea that there might be a day when someone seizes power—indeed, we were debating Cuba all day today—and nationalizes the properties and the businesses placed there by other countries over the years.
This is a large agreement involving all industrialized countries, all bound by the rule of law, with no reasonable prospect of such a thing happening. In the European Union, the reason that so many individual states and regions continue to vociferously oppose this, and why it is being challenged in the European Court of Justice, is that the Europeans have never agreed to such a thing before in the European Parliament.
The question is why on earth do we think we need investor protection when dealing with Germany, France, and other countries that are industrialized and responsible, and not likely to seize our assets? This is ambulance chasing at its worst by a clique of global lawyers, done out of greed.