International Trade committee  Yes. I wasn't told of any barriers specific to this type of partnership that I could try to remedy in our current talks. From the outset, our position excludes education, and as far as I know, there aren't any related barriers that need to be raised in our negotiations. Because education is a provincial responsibility, I consulted with the provinces, as well as the major national associations of universities and colleges.

International Trade committee  Yes. I guess this is also Shendra's area in large measure, but there will continue to be opportunities—in fact, we hope expanded opportunities—for Canadian exports of agricultural products, including the value-added, the processed food products. But I think it's fair to say that the biggest opportunity in India in the agricultural sector is in investment and in bringing Canadian technology to the challenge of agricultural production in India.

International Trade committee  I think you need a better witness than I to try to address such a large question. Maybe a really good place to start would be our High Commissioner to India, Stewart Beck, who has been spending the last two years trying to figure out the answer to that question. Our brand is, I would say, weak in India, because they have so many other suitors, and because we're far away and we're more or less the expensive option.

International Trade committee  In my remarks, I indicated there were some areas and issues that were not yet part of the agreed content of the final agreement—the modalities, as we call them. Intellectual property is one of those areas. Canada continues to promote the idea of including intellectual property protection in the agreement, but this is not yet agreed on the Indian side.

International Trade committee  They are not in negotiation with the U.S. They are in the fifth year of negotiations with the European Union.

International Trade committee  I will ask my colleague Mr. Santerre to answer that.

International Trade committee  Well, as was commented on already, I would agree with the assertion that India needs Canada in respect of meeting many of its development objectives, including the list that I provided: food security, energy security, infrastructure, and education. That having been said, India has a lot of suitors.

International Trade committee  First of all, I would like to say that the average tariff faced by a Canadian export into India is something in the range of 9%, but on manufactured goods, that's in the range of 5% to 10%, and in agricultural goods the average is 30%. That's an average. Some tariffs are very significantly higher.

International Trade committee  The joint study carried out with India is available on the department's Web site. It includes the two countries' projections, or economic models, in a report. So they are available to you. In fact, I thought the committee had asked us to provide copies of the report when we appeared last December.

International Trade committee  No, not at this time, neither potatoes nor frozen french fries.

International Trade committee  Yes, including the opportunity to dispute matters regulatory—

International Trade committee  Yes. That's why we do them.

International Trade committee  McCain is a very interesting example of how to work in the Indian market. Number one, they spent six years researching exactly what variety of potato would grow best in the regions of India, recruiting local farmers and training them in how to farm those potatoes for McCain so that they meet the standard.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  It's certainly our hope and our objective in the negotiations. How well we do, well, it remains to be seen.