International Trade committee  Thank you for your question. Ms. Tapia actually mentioned those subjects. I don't disagree with her, but maybe she wants to have a chance to respond and then I can also add to it. Let me start. I fully agree with her assessment that education and health services are export opportunities for Canada and ASEAN, and by that in the education sector we mean two things.

International Trade committee  Well, these are slightly different sets of issues. On the negotiations, there are some very specific things that are holding up the talks. I think they can be resolved. It will obviously involve give and take. All agreements are second best. Okay? There are no first-best agreements in any free trade agreement or in any multilateral talks.

International Trade committee  I'm smiling only because Thailand is in a very special situation today.They have put in place some retroactive rules on foreign ownership in the services sector that may in fact contravene the FIPA we signed with them. This is being negotiated as we speak. But this is something that applies to the whole world.

International Trade committee  The priorities we have already mentioned: Indonesia and Vietnam, which is an up and comer. We don't have large investments there. I don't think Malaysia has an appetite for FIPAs, but that would be another market. We already have an agreement with the Philippines and Thailand. I don't think it's a priority for us to negotiate with Cambodia or Laos, certainly not Myanmar, and Brunei is too small a market to consider.

International Trade committee  There are two things. One is our focus on North American markets since the 1988 bilateral and then the 1994 NAFTA agreement, which was a great decision because the U.S. was growing in unprecedented terms and we benefited very greatly from that. However, it created a mindset in the Canadian business community not to look much beyond Houston, Atlanta, and Los Angeles.

International Trade committee  I think there are some very quick wins that we could have. I've mentioned them already. First of all, we have to close these two agreements that are still on the table: Korea--it's not in Southeast Asia, but it's an Asian country--and Singapore. Second, there are a number of non-merchandise trade issues that we can work on.

International Trade committee  I haven't heard many complaints about the lack of adequate service. We've always had compliments about our trade commissioners in the field and we have decent trade commissioner representation in most of the ASEAN markets. Of course, Laos, Cambodia, and Burma are off the map. Cambodia and Laos are represented through Vietnam.

International Trade committee  I can't say if things have improved or not. What I can tell you is that in terms of student arrivals from Southeast Asia, those numbers have fallen off. Canada is now a very small market and a relatively insignificant destination for students from ASEAN to pursue their post-secondary education overseas.

International Trade committee  Yes. We've been hearing very positive signals come out of the negotiations with Singapore. There's talk of conclusion of a deal this year, which would be very good news. I think if we are able to close with Singapore, we can very quickly begin informal soundings on the prospect of an agreement with ASEAN as a whole.

International Trade committee  Typically, the Americans have linked their trade negotiations with labour and environmental agreements. We tend not to do that. I believe it is not a good idea to link agreements, because they distort the trade agreements, but it is entirely possible to advance environmental issues, human rights issues, and issues of good governance through other forums, through bilateral dialogues on human rights, through partnerships with parliamentary committees, and through working with human rights NGOs in different parts of the world.

International Trade committee  Mr. Clark is absolutely correct in his characterization of Brazil, but it's the distinction between Brazil and ASEAN that is important. Whereas Brazil is still somewhat inward-looking, ASEAN has always been extremely outward-looking and pro-trade. It's been very open to investment from outside and to broadening trade relations with all parts of the world.

International Trade committee  Thank you. I don't have all the details on the roadblocks in the negotiations between Canada and Singapore, but I understand they have to do with areas related to investment and the provision of services. These are the principal areas where Canada has to gain in an agreement with Singapore, because the barriers to trade in goods are already removed.

International Trade committee  Yes, we have two FIPAs--two foreign investment protection agreements--with Philippines and Thailand. I think it's extremely important that we put emphasis on investment promotion and that we accelerate the pace of talks in foreign investment protection agreements with Indonesia and with Vietnam.

International Trade committee  The U.S. is a much more important economic partner. They have long-standing economic and strategic interests in Singapore. To put it bluntly, the value of a free trade agreement with the United States is manyfold more important than the value of a free trade agreement with Canada.

International Trade committee  In fact, that's not the case. Singapore has signed treaties with--I've lost count now--more than a dozen countries, including Australia and New Zealand. There's the AFTA agreement, and Singapore has been working with India and Japan. In fact, many of these deals were negotiated after Canada started talks with Singapore.