Stockwell Day

[Canada-U.S. Relations, September 17th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, that is why our Prime Minister continues to tell the President of the United States that there is a problem. We also have solutions, which are supported by municipalities across Canada.

[Agriculture and Agri-Food, September 16th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge how my colleague stands up for producers in her own constituency.

On the ban on beef from Colombia alone, in fact if we did not have that ban in place right now, we would have about a $6 million access for our producers. I wish the opposition parties would stop their grandstanding and help us move along the Colombia free trade agreement.

On the issue of Colombia's ban, the Minister of Agriculture and I have continually pursued this issue. I am pleased to announce that the country of Colombia has announced today that it is lifting that ban on beef.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, September 16th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, my hon. friend is being a good soldier and continuing to read out the questions that have been hastily written out and handed to her.

However, I can add some more words to President Obama's evaluation. Upon hearing the proposal that has been brought forward, a proposal that was worked on by premiers and territorial leaders, he also said today that it appears there may be ways to deal with this bilaterally, that we are working together on this and that this in fact might be one solution.

We are not there yet. There is more work to do, but progress is being made on this.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, September 16th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it is somewhat disappointing to hear my colleague opposite diminish the words of the President of the United States. It is somewhat reminiscent of how the Liberals dealt with the United States when they were in government, always diminishing what the U.S. was doing with us.

Directly related to the procurement agreement, the premiers and territorial leaders came together several weeks ago, in rather an unprecedented and historic way, and they agreed on a procurement agreement among provinces and territories. It was unprecedented on their part and they should be congratulated for that. They should not be diminished for doing it.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, September 16th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I had hoped that my friend might ask a better question when he spoke the second time, after the disturbance, but he did not.

In fact, it was the President of the United States, Mr. Obama, who said today that our Prime Minister Harper has made the situation created by the Buy American Act a priority. Furthermore, it was the President who agreed that we may have a solution. We will continue to work on a solution.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, September 16th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to read this:

[The] Prime Minister...has brought this up with me every single time we've met. So he's been on the job--

But in addition, we're pursuing, on a bilateral track, efforts to make sure that these sources of tension diminish.

Who is crediting the Prime Minister for being on the job every single time on this issue? Those comments were made today by the President of the United States.

[Trade, September 15th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague not just for the question but for the help that she has given, especially related to our India trade.

I have just a quick short list. In past months, we have had 14 members of Parliament and ministers visit China, including myself and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. We have invested $2.5 billion into the Asia-Pacific corridor to help the flow of goods to Asia. There are six new trade offices in China and three more in India, which brings us up to eight.

The Prime Minister has started negotiations with the EU in terms of free trade agreements. We are having discussions with India right now in terms of trade. There is a foreign investment protection and nuclear co-operation agreement in progress. There are more FTAs on the way. We are doing quite a bit, more than those guys ever did.

[Canada-US Relations, September 15th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, last week I met with mayors and other leaders from municipalities across Canada. I explained our plan regarding protectionism in the United States. I got the support of the mayors to continue with our plan. They will look at it and show it. We will continue to work together to convey our message against protectionism in the United States.

[International Trade, September 15th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, our Prime Minister has shown leadership. We have shown leadership by bringing together premiers and territorial leaders from across the country.

In a somewhat unprecedented way and in a fairly short period of time, and we allowed them some months to do this, they came together with a procurement agreement, which I presented to the U.S. trade representative last week. He has appointed a chief negotiator and we have appointed a chief negotiator.

We are looking at this problem of buy American, which we frankly see as an element of protectionism. We want to see this turned around, and we are aggressively pursuing it in that direction.

[International Trade, September 15th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, we came to an agreement with all the premiers in Canada. Now we can present this agreement to the Americans to show them that we will remain open to free trade and we will denounce protectionism.

I repeat that we now have people working with the Americans to find a solution based on the agreement that I presented to the American representatives last week.