International Trade committee  These are engines of growth for aerospace and rail transportation.

International Trade committee  I will give you a fairly simple answer. In my opening comments, I mentioned that we were active in all activity sectors in Asia-Pacific. Obviously, if we look at countries individually, we are more active in rail. I gave the example of Japan, but there are other countries, including Australia, where we are active in both sectors.

International Trade committee  As you mentioned, Bombardier is very focused on markets outside Canada. Canada is obviously an important market. It's our operations base, and it represents about 7% of our revenues. So market access is critical for a global company like Bombardier. Our competition is global. There are a few players in the rail sector and a few in the aerospace sector, but they are big players.

International Trade committee  The economy is shifting from an investment-led trade-focused one to a consumption-led one. I'm going to conclude my opening remarks by giving some broad views about the TPP. We certainly welcome the TPP. We believe the areas covered are quite exhaustive and reflect the realities of the current economy, which is very much knowledge-based.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I propose to make my comments in both official languages, if that's okay with you. I will give my presentation partly in French and partly in English. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to offer you our perspectives on the Asia-Pacific region and, more specifically, on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

International Trade committee  Business mobility touches on a number of areas. One area that is important for us would be accreditation of professionals. What free trade agreements can do is put in place a framework, but it would be up to the associations, really, to negotiate mutual recognition agreements for different professions.

International Trade committee  Work permits would be important as well. When we send people to work on a specific project, sometimes there are limitations as to the length of time people from outside the country can go in to work on projects as specialists. This was an issue in the context of the CETA negotiations, and it's an issue in the context of other free trade negotiations.

International Trade committee  In the case of ATI, I don't want to oversimplify the reason for their being very competitive in this market. I think they've been active in this market longer than we have, so we have some catching up to do. They have put in place the infrastructure as well to support their business.

International Trade committee  I would go back to my comment about the benefit of having a regional arrangement rather than a web of bilateral arrangements. I think it's an opportunity to harmonize. I also mentioned that we have a presence in Mexico, so maybe there's an opportunity for us, in order to enhance our competitiveness, to have some input from our sites in Mexico to supply projects in which we may participate in other alliance member countries.

International Trade committee  At this point in time we're not facing any specific barriers from within the Pacific Alliance membership.

International Trade committee  Do you mean, in those markets?

International Trade committee  When free trade agreements are in place, they provide more certainty and predictability for the company as a potential investor and for the companies that do business in those markets. That includes investment disciplines. There's a fair amount of business mobility that would be involved in our projects, such as sending engineers not only from Canada but it could be from other countries as well.

International Trade committee  Do you mean from Asia?

International Trade committee  On this, if I have any comment to offer, it is that I understand there is a large number of countries that are observers. If there's any opportunity to leverage the Pacific Alliance in relation to the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, this is what we may wish to pursue. With respect to whether any specific countries should be members, my comments were limited more to the current membership of the Pacific Alliance than to looking at expanding the alliance.

International Trade committee  For our part, we see them as complementary. In terms of timing, that might work. As I said, it may not be realistic to think that Canada can actually become a full member in the next year. The Pacific Alliance has indicated that some countries, Panama and Costa Rica for example, were possible members, in the short term.