International Trade committee  The department officials and the meeting that was to take place on December 6 were switched. So the department officials would be on December 6, and the meeting that was scheduled to be on December 6 is now on December 11. So they just switched.

International Trade committee  The question is on the main motion. Can I dispense with reading it?

International Trade committee  (Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 3)

International Trade committee  All right, I'll try to read it in English: That the committee recommend that no ratification agreement between Canada and Colombia be signed without the Minister of International Trade and appropriate witnesses being called forthwith to testify before the committee on how environmental impact and human rights concerns are being addressed in current bilateral trade negotiations, with particular reference to the Canada-Colombia bilateral negotiations, and that if the minister is incapable of demonstrating that he is protecting human rights that negotiations be put to an end with Colombia.

International Trade committee  Mr. Chairman, the motion would read as follows: That the Committee recommends that no ratification of the bilateral trade agreement between Canada and Colombia be signed until the Minister of International Trade is called to testify before the Committee on how human rights concerns are being addressed in current bilateral trade negotiations with particular reference to the Canada-Colombia bilateral negotiations, and that, if the Minister is unable to demonstrate that human rights are being protected, the government end negotiations with Colombia.

International Trade committee  My translation of this could be refined, but the intention of what I heard from Mr. Cardin is that the committee recommend that no ratification agreement between Canada and Colombia be signed until.... Then we continue with the motion as moved by Mr. Bains. Is there an ending as well?

International Trade committee  The motion as amended would read: That the Standing Committee on International Trade conduct extensive hearings on the implications of the Canada–Korea bilateral agreement currently being negotiated, specifically hearing testimony from a wide variety of sectors and diverse regions of Canada, and that the committee investigate alternative ways to build and strengthen Canada's trade relationship with Korea, and that once completed, the committee report this study to the House.

International Trade committee  The supply period ends December 10, but the rules say the committee has to report, or only has until three days prior to the designation of the final allotted day to consider the estimates, so whenever the government designates the final supply day, the committee has to backtrack three days and you have--

International Trade committee  It hasn't been designated as of now.

International Trade committee  I just cleaned up some of the wording at the end a little bit. It would read: That the Standing Committee on International Trade conduct extensive hearings on the implications of the Canada-Korea bilateral agreement currently being negotiated, specifically hearing testimony from a wide variety of sectors and diverse regions of Canada, and that the committee investigate alternative ways to build and strengthen Canada’s trade relationship with Korea, and that once completed the committee report this to the House.

International Trade committee  I wouldn't presume to know that. That's....

International Trade committee  Mr. Chair, thank you for the question. I wouldn't presume to know the members' intentions. My reading of the rules is that once any report is reported back to the House, if any member wants to give notice of concurrence in that report they can do so. And once the notice for a motion of concurrence is given, it's added to the list.

International Trade committee  And then once that motion is moved, then there's a three-hour debate on that.

International Trade committee  Thank you Mr. Chairman. As I understand it, the motion as worded would be tabled to the House, as you said. Mr. Pallister's amendment—and you can correct me if I'm wrong—would mean that a report would be tabled to the House only upon completion of the study.

International Trade committee  No, I was just saying that if I'm wrong then you can clarify that.