David Kilgour

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, we are going to the WTO and to NAFTA. Unfortunately, as my colleague knows, that takes a long time and the export tax--

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, the Minister for International Trade is in Spain today otherwise he would have led the debate on our side.

There undoubtedly will be jobs losses, and the Minister for International Trade knows that as well as my hon. colleague.

As my colleague knows, one of our problems in terms of Asia--Pacific is that we should have developed markets in that area long ago. Somebody told me the other day that Shanghai needed a million board feet of softwood lumber for its exploding housing industry. We should be developing that market. We have put in money into developing that market and I hope we put a lot more into that market and other markets in Asia--Pacific.

As the member knows very well, once we get to 30% of the American market this happens repeatedly. I would request that when those on the other side stand up to speak they should tell us whether they want us to impose an export tax to recoup some money so we can help communities, or do they not want us to go that route.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, this is a totally fair question and I respect my colleague.

Indeed, I described some assistance projects and programs, but it is quite obvious and expected that we will be taking other action.

I ask the question very sincerely. For example, does my colleague want us to also impose an export tax on this product? Could this help people working in the industry in Quebec and the other provinces? Are her party, the other parties and herself in favour of a tax on softwood lumber exports? Would this allow us to recover enough money?

I am asking her very sincerely. I know that she has is not entitled to answer my question, but I see that three other people also want to ask questions.

[Supply, May 7th, 2002]

Madam Speaker, I quite agree with my colleague from Alberta. This is very unfair to cowboys. I worked as a cowboy many years ago and I know cowboys. They would be horrified to think that they were being compared to what is happening here this morning. It is very unfair to cowboys of both genders, no matter where they work in Canada.

I will be sharing my time with the Secretary of State for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec. Unfortunately, I will be speaking only in English. However, I believe my colleague will speak only in French, so that will even things out.

I am very pleased to rise on the motion of my friend opposite on the softwood lumber dispute with the United States. All of us in the House, everyone in the lumber industry and Canadians across the country, cowboys included, are extremely frustrated by the American attitude on this issue.

The Prime Minister and the Minister for International Trade has spared no effort to find a solution. My colleague, the Minister for International Trade, has worked with all stakeholders, provincial governments, the industry, the unions and the communities involved to develop a unanimous position to take into the negotiations. The Prime Minister spoke with President Bush about it on several occasions, as colleagues know. Our government has been solidly behind the industry, the communities and the stakeholders in the fight for free and fair trade with the United States, but as yet to no avail.

The Americans have rejected all fair and reasonable offers for a settlement and have imposed this outrageous tariff. It is a pure and simple case of protectionism on behalf of the American lumber industry. Our government has taken its case to the World Trade Organization and we will also be taking it before a NAFTA panel. We are pursuing all legal remedies in support of the communities and the industry. There continues to be a good team effort by the government ministers, ministers in provincial governments, union representatives, industry representatives and community representatives. What we all want is for Canadians who are in the business of shipping lumber to stay in business.

It seems that every few years the American industry feels the pinch of competition and runs to its government for protection. What is truly outrageous to many of us is not that the industry would do that but that the government of the United States would follow its wishes every time, even though it has lost the case so many times before. Some of our government to government negotiators have even commented that they have felt that they are negotiating with the U.S. industry instead of its government.

We have won the case before and I have no doubt that we will win it again. We are not without allies in Washington. Members of congress are also urging the administration to support free and fair trade. We all hope that the administration will start to listen. I also believe that Canada's case will have a great deal of support at the WTO which after all has been set up to ensure that there is fair and free trade among all the nations of the world.

In the meantime there are several different programs in place to support individuals, businesses, families and communities which are most affected. The Minister of Industry has pointed out that for those who face unemployment as a result of this unfair U.S. decision, the employment insurance program will be available, as it is for all Canadian employees. Human Resources Development Canada also offers worker adjustment programs to, among other things, help individuals make the transition to other industries when the ones they are in face limited opportunities. The Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development supports development among our first nations communities where this decision is having a particularly negative impact as well.

In addition, the government has been working with provincial governments, the industry and communities across the country to provide support and assistance. For example, the Western Diversification Office, as members will know, is working with local partners to help smaller businesses with such things as value added wood processing. The idea is to help those companies develop other products for markets in Canada and around the world, including many in Asia-Pacific such as China.

There is the WoodTEK Business Development Centre in Prince George which serves as a local incubator for entrepreneurs. It provides access to things like kiln drying, subdimensional cutting and fibre mixtures as well as technical and business training, management and marketing assistance.

Another value added wood manufacturing facility has been set up in Quesnel, B.C. where entrepreneurs can use leading edge wood manufacturing equipment. It also offers help with developing the commercial potential of new products. Western Diversification also works with the Western Canada Business Service Network to provide a wide range of financial and other services to forest related businesses.

There are also projects to help diversify the economies of several communities in the area through initiatives to create greater tourism as well as to encourage national and international filmmakers, for example, to develop their projects in the area as well as a host of other initiatives.

As some members will know, we have established community futures development corporations which are locally run, independent, non-profit societies that deliver programs and services on behalf of many levels of government and several different private and public sector agencies.

Western diversification continues to work with local forest communities to help develop and commercialize different products, to encourage entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to working for someone else, providing seed funding for local diversification within forest dependent communities and investing in forest product research and development.

The federal government intends to use all existing programs to help these communities and, if need be, shall do what is required to make sure that they are protected from this unreasonable American action.

I would point out that there are different initiatives now in place to support the employees in the industry. All levels of government are working together to address the fallout.

Discussions are underway at the present time with provincial governments to develop further ways to ensure that the communities are protected as best we can.

As has been said many times in the Chamber, the problem is not here, it is in the United States. It has rejected negotiations. It has rejected binding dispute resolution which is a bedrock of a rules based trading system. It continues to take “a my way or the highway” approach to the matter.

I believe all 30 million Canadians are rallying around our industry because we know this is yet another patently unfair attack by the Americans on an industry that is consistently better run and more competitive than their own.

The Government of Canada is fully focused on the problems that this is creating in many communities and is taking action and will take further action.

At the same time, I think all of us in the House should continue to speak out at every chance we get to tell the American industry, congressmen, senators and the American government that what they are doing is not only unjust and unwarranted but that it is greatly tarnishing their reputation as one of the world's leading proponents of free and fair trade.

[Foreign Affairs, May 6th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, as one of the world's most courageous and admired political leaders, Aung San Suu Kyi embodies the determination and enormous promise that Canadians have long known exist in the people of Burma.

We certainly welcome the long overdue news that she has been released after 20 months in prison. We hope she will be able to participate meaningfully in a political process. We also hope that the remaining 1,400 to 1,500 political prisoners will be released very soon.

[Canadian International Trade Tribunal Act, April 24th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to support Bill C-50, perhaps not surprisingly. The bill presents a number of legislative initiatives that would enable Canada to take full advantage of the new rights it obtained as a result of negotiations for China to accede to the World Trade Organization.

Over the past two decades China's economic growth has been among the highest in the world. Last year it was Canada's third largest trading partner after the U.S. and Japan. China's growing importance in the world economy makes it crucial that the Government of Canada continue to seek a constructive and open relationship with China. We need to ensure the continued capacity of Canadian exporters and investors to have access to the business opportunities in China that will present themselves as China grows and develops.

Now that China is a member of the World Trade Organization, the WTO will be the main multilateral forum to discuss these issues. The WTO is the main international forum for negotiating reductions in trade barriers. The members of the WTO have also agreed on a series of shared principles and practices to regulate and administer international trade. The system is based on the rule of law and on fundamental principles such as transparency, fair practices and non-discrimination.

After being admitted into the WTO on December 11, 2001, China began to significantly reduce trade barriers in goods and services. China also began a long-term process to amend its trade laws and regulations to make them compliant with the principles and practices set out in the WTO agreement.

The broad implications of the WTO rules mean that it will take China some time to implement fully its commitments. Although China's record on implementation so far, less than six months after it acceded, has not been perfect, we are satisfied that things are moving in the right direction and that China has been open to hearing us out and acting upon a number of Canadian concerns.

One of our areas of concern of course is agriculture. We have serious doubts about the unnecessarily heavy trade impact of Chinese regulations on genetically modified foods, such as Canadian exports of canola seed. We are also disappointed that China has still not fully implemented tariff rate quotas that are necessary for trade in a number of agricultural commodities. We will continue to pursue vigorously these matters on behalf of our farmers and food processors.

We will continue to apply vigilance over all Canadian export sectors to ensure that exporters do enjoy the benefits set out in the terms of accession.

China's accession to the WTO provides us with one more way to resolve trade disputes with China. The government will do everything it can to have its rights under the WTO upheld.

Our trade relations with the U.S. show that disputes and irritants remain while trade increases and we move toward more complementary economies. Also, during the 50 years the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was in effect and now under the WTO, we have noticed an unprecedented increase in international trade along with strong economic growth around the world. What is even more important is that this trade expansion led to better quality of life for the residents of trading nations and for all of us.

By joining the WTO, China made a long-term commitment toward freer trade. It has acknowledged the indubitable relation between opening up to the world economy and economic growth. Therefore, we are convinced that China will continue its efforts to honour the international commitments it made during the 15 years of negotiation that led to its accession to the WTO.

Negotiations to join the WTO usually affect only the acceding country, requiring it to make concessions and changes to its domestic laws and regulations. Amendments to Canadian legislation are normally not required.

In these negotiations, WTO members sought and obtained the right to invoke China-specific safeguards and to apply appropriate non-market economy rules in anti-dumping investigations on Chinese goods. These are the measures that are implemented in Bill C-50 as members will all know.

These measures were designed to address China's unique place in the world economy as a major exporter with high tech production capacity and a large degree of government intervention and involvement in the economy. All WTO members have the right to implement them if they choose to do so. Other members are also taking necessary steps to amend their domestic, regulatory or legislative framework as necessary.

Under the China-specific safeguards, which will apply for 12 years following its accession, that is until December 11, 2013, Canada will be able to impose special trade measures to protect Canadian industries from injurious surges of imports from China.

The anti-dumping provisions in Bill C-50 allow WTO member countries to use special rules to determine price comparability in an anti-dumping investigation, while China makes the transition to a market economy. The rules will be in effect for 15 years following China's accession.

These measures will complement the existing provisions of the Canadian legislation on safeguards and anti-dumping proceedings, which are based on the WTO agreements, including the agreements concerning safeguards and anti-dumping procedures.

It is important to note that these special measures will apply only to imports from the People's Republic of China. They will not apply to imports from Hong Kong or Taiwan, which are separate members of the WTO.

The government does not foresee an increase in injurious surges of imports from China as a result of the WTO accession which would require the use of the China-specific safeguards. China already has quite open access to Canada's market and its terms of access to the Canadian market will remain largely unchanged as a result of its WTO accession.

Implementation of these measures will ensure that Canada and affected Canadian industries have at their disposal the full range of rights that were agreed to during the multilateral negotiations in the World Trade Organization. Such industries support the implementation of these measures in Bill C-50 since they provide additional tools to respond to potentially injurious imports.

For all of these reasons, I respectfully urge colleagues in the House to support the bill.

[Taiwan, April 23rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the member is correct in those points but he also knows that no executive branch of any government has accepted the point that the two legislative bodies have returned to.

Taiwan has done extremely well. Its economy and democracy are doing very well and we should all be very proud of it.

[Taiwan, April 23rd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the point the member made has been made repeatedly by many other spokespeople and no government at this point has come on side with the member on that particular point.

[Foreign Affairs, April 8th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the policy has given us the flexibility to maintain growing cultural, economic and people to people contacts with Taiwan, which, as the member knows, is our fourth largest trading partner in Asia.

As we urge Beijing and Taipei to resolve their differences, we will continue to support the efforts of the Canadian trade offices in Taipei and readily approve visits of all persons applying within the terms of the relationship.

[Foreign Affairs, March 20th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, Canada has spoken out about the human rights situation, both at the UN human rights commission and in Beijing, and will continue to do so. On many occasions we have raised our concerns directly with senior Chinese officials, both in Beijing and here in Ottawa.

Canada would very much like China to end the suppression of freedom of religious expression and spiritual practice and to ratify the two human rights conventions that China has already ratified at the UN.