International Trade committee  When a trade officer in the field identifies an opportunity, the best way to get action is to connect it directly with the Canadian companies that are capable of acting on those opportunities. That's how we get to that $26 in exports per dollar invested in the trade commissioner service.

International Trade committee  The economic research is done according to a standard methodology as defined by the International Trade Organization, which is a Geneva-based United Nations entity. Trade promotion organizations from many countries do similar research to generate the impact of their own trade promotion organizations.

International Trade committee  Yes, we look closely at that number, and we always want it to be a better number.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Chief Trade Commissioner Wilshaw. Madam Chair, in response to the member's question, though we have had a number of trade commissioners back in Canada for duty of care purposes, most of them, as the chief trade commissioner has mentioned, are back at mission now.

Canada-China Relations committee  We have no policy to decrease our trade with China.

Canada-China Relations committee  We are trying to grow our trade with every market.

Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair, in terms of trade diversification, the government has no policy of trade diversification away from China. We would like to grow our trade with China. As we've heard from many of the questions, there members have concerns about how we increase our canola trade, how we increase our trade in forest products and how we increase our trade in all ranges of commodities and products and services.

Canada-China Relations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Outside of the tangible trade between Canada and China, as the honourable member has observed, there is considerable intangible trade. For example, in the education sector there are over 140,000 Chinese students studying in Canada in communities all across our country.

Canada-China Relations committee  Mr. Chair, as the previous question indicated, work is under way in the WTO multilaterally with all countries to figure out the ways to operate in this new environment and, specifically with Canada, we have a number of mechanisms. In particular, with Canadian companies looking to do business in China, we give them extensive advice, not only about the benefits of that business in China should it work, but also about some of the risks they need to be taking into account—for example, with respect to their intellectual property and other competitive aspects—and ways they can deal with those risks to protect their business, to be successful in China and not have that trade work out badly for them.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We have provided a range of advice to our minister on options to implement that recommendation. I know the minister is continuing to actively consult with stakeholders before making a decision.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Sure. Maybe I can answer by trying to give some numbers that will provide a sense of the issue from our perspective as people who are trying to have an impact in the field. I mentioned 930 Canadian mining projects in Latin America. There was a well-publicized report by people from the Osgoode Hall Law School last year that named nine projects with incidents from 2014 or later.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Right, and that's just math, and you pull these from the annual reports of the companies and so on. It illustrates that they are a huge multiplier for Canadian policy objectives in the region, whether that's for good or for bad. We would be wise, and it's a focus of our policy, to work with the Canadian mining companies, to use them as a lever and a very powerful tool to help in the ongoing development of effective institutions in Latin America that can provide security, can provide protection for human rights, as well as the economic benefits.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  As we mentioned earlier, there are 930 Canadian projects in Latin America alone and that's a huge number. It's very hard to go and look and see every single project on any kind of consistent, sustained basis. That is one of the challenges of our policy. We need to help the companies understand how they can do the right thing, even if we aren't necessarily directly watching them.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Right. We've been approached by several countries—

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  —about our sanction, about our publicly naming a company as not acting in good faith and why, and what they have to do to fix it, and how until they fix it they are not eligible for Canadian diplomatic support. That's a great curiosity to many countries.