Gerald Keddy

[Human Rights, February 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it is our Conservative government that has aggressively pursued Canada's trade expansion with China. We secured approved destination status for Chinese tourists. Two-way trade is almost $60 billion. That is up from $36 billion under the Liberals. We will not take any lessons on trade from any of the opposition members.

However, let me be clear on human rights. We take every appropriate opportunity to express our human rights concerns to the Chinese government, in a respectful manner.

[International Trade, February 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for London West for his hard work on trade committee.

Today the Prime Minister announced the conclusion of a landmark job-creating investment agreement between Canada and China. It shows that our ambitious pro trade plan is delivering results by forging new links with high growth markets. This agreement will provide a more stable and secure environment for investors on both sides of the Pacific.

This is good news for Canadian workers and their families.

[Health, February 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would thoroughly caution the hon. member from seeing any truth in leaked documents.

When it comes to social services and health care, a free trade agreement with the European Union, like all of Canada's trade agreements, would exclude public services such as public health, public education, social services, water and the rest of the list.

The member should not put any credibility in leaked documents.

[Manufacturing Industry, February 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, we are focused on pursuing opportunities for Canadian exporters and investors in what is one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Under our government, Canada's exports to China have increased 85%. Just today, we announced the foreign protection and investment treaty with the Chinese and that will protect manufacturing jobs and create opportunities in Canada.

[International Trade, February 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, we guarantee jobs here at home by pursuing a trade agenda abroad, which is something the NDP will never understand.

[International Trade, February 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the real difficulty here is the NDP trade agenda has absolutely zero credibility. It is a heresy issue. We stand up for Canadian workers every day by pursuing a trade agenda abroad to guarantee--

[International Trade, February 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it is our Conservative government that has aggressively pursued Canada's trade expansion in China. We have secured approved destination status for Chinese tourists. Two-way trade is now almost $60 billion. That is up from $36 billion under the Liberals.

I can guarantee one more thing. We will take no advice on trade from the NDP members. They have voted against every trade agreement we have brought to this place.

[Sealing Industry, February 3rd, 2012]

Madam Speaker, the hon. member should be paying attention to what the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans and the Minister of International Trade have been doing.

We have been working on behalf of Canadian sealers since we formed government and we will continue to do exactly that.

[Canada-Jordan Economic Growth and Prosperity Act, December 14th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Malpeque for his comments and for his support of this bill going to committee. I hope we can expect the Liberal Party to support the bill coming back to the House for third reading.

The hon. member raised a number of issues, some of which I agree and some of which I respectfully disagree, but I am not trying to rewrite history or be a revisionist historian. I want to ask the hon. member about one principle. This principle underlies our efforts to establish new trading arrangements with countries around the globe, whether they happen to be the nintieth economy in the world or the first economy in the world, and that is the principle of rules based trading. The principle that goes along with rules based trading is reciprocity.

The idea that we have clear rules that dictate trade and that those rules are reciprocal for both parties is fundamental to whether we will survive as a trading nation. Canada is certainly not large enough, with 33 million people, to depend upon ourselves for trade. There is a group in the House that wants to put barriers up to trade. I have not seen that from the Liberals and I hope I do not.

[Canada-Jordan Economic Growth and Prosperity Act, December 14th, 2011]

Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for clearly laying out the position of the NDP on this trade agreement and all others.

I have two points. The first point is the hon. member went off on a tangent on the Detroit bridge and the fact that 40% of the trade between Canada and the United States goes across it. I found it absolutely astounding, so maybe the hon. member could explain to me, that he supports his colleague from Burnaby—New Westminster who has a bill before the House to have buy Canada provisions and he stated that he supported buy Canada provisions. We know that increased protectionism was absolutely the cause of the Great Depression and it just snowballed. One country increased protectionism, then another country and then another country.

President Obama said that we should not have increased protectionism but he allowed a very dangerous precedent to happen. This is unfortunately a result of the American political system. Politics will always trump good policy in the United States in an election year. The members of Congress, the members of the senate and the members of the house of representatives we talk to tell us that politics will always trump good policy. I am hearing the same thing from my colleague in the NDP. He is talking about politics, not good policy.

It is good policy that we trade. It is good policy that we allow countries to move forward and that we encourage them to move forward with rules-based trading. That is what we are talking about.