Fisheries committee  It's a good point, because there are actually two sections of the NAFO amendments, sections 14 and 15. Section 14 deals with the objection procedures. It sets up a panel to review objections. Section 15 deals with dispute settlement. Section 15 reflects or basically refers what already exists under customary international law.

Fisheries committee  The objection procedure wouldn't last two, three, or four years. That would be a dispute settlement process, a separate one. If they objected in October or November when they have the first chance to do it, then there's a 60-day waiting period. A whole bunch of steps are built in.

Fisheries committee  It's even more specific than that. First of all, many of the fish stocks in the northeast Atlantic swim through the coastal state waters of more than one coastal state. They may swim through the waters of Norway, Iceland, and on the high seas, for example. So you have two coastal states involved and the high seas, while all the other parties would be fishing them.

Fisheries committee  I don't find it surprising; that's always been the European Union's objective. What I do find surprising is why we let them. The consequence is that the person who is the chair and has the pen produces the chairman's report—produces the report on a discussion—and they can put in, modify, or spin whatever they as chair wish to do.

Fisheries committee  I think you partially answered it. When parties don't want the stocks to go down, they're going to resist the conservation measures that would be put in place to protect those stocks. If you require more parties to vote for the conservation measures, you're going to have a greater difficulty achieving those measures.

Fisheries committee  I did, and in fact I worked very closely with Minister Crosbie. I recall very well Minister Crosbie's view that he was the minister for the fish. Someone had to stand up to protect and conserve the fish. I find this current agreement to be for the fishing industry so it can maximize profits early.

Fisheries committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, committee. I worked at DFO in the international relations field for more than 23 years, 15 of which were at the senior executive level. I also spent more than three years in Brussels in the early 1990s as the Canadian fisheries counsellor to the European Union.