International Trade committee  Since we negotiate the expanded agreements based on the advice and requests we receive from our carriers, we normally would see the demand there and see them grow. Having said that, there are certainly examples where one of our domestic carriers has asked for additional rights, which we've negotiated on their behalf, and then they've stopped taking advantage of those rights because the route becomes unprofitable to them or there are other changes in the market.

International Trade committee  No, I have nothing to add to that.

International Trade committee  We wouldn't be dictating the terms of an agreement. Basically, if it's our interest to consider expanding an air agreement with another country, we'll approach that country. By that time, we've already heard from our stakeholders, through our consultative process, that they're interested in expanding in that particular market.

International Trade committee  As I mentioned to you, the way the process works is that we receive advice from our airlines, for example, or airports in terms of their priority markets. Once we have an expanded air agreement, then the legal framework is put in place, which we implement and bring into law as a treaty.

International Trade committee  It's 25%.

International Trade committee  I guess one example would be if we didn't feel there was sufficient interest on behalf of Canadian passengers to travel to that market. Another example would be if we felt that a foreign carrier was asking for an open-skies type of agreement with Canada with unlimited rights to fly into this market, but we didn't feel that the bilateral passenger traffic between that country and Canada warranted that type of agreement and it could lead to undue competition for Canadian carriers and some of the routes they have established, not just in Canada but in other countries as well.

International Trade committee  No, the right continues to exist until we sit down with the other government to renegotiate the air transport agreement. I don't know if there are any examples of us lowering the number of frequencies, for example, in an existing air agreement. We normally build on them, but we have some air agreements that are quite old.

International Trade committee  As I mentioned earlier, an open skies agreement has very few restrictions at all in terms of the rights that foreign and domestic airlines can take advantage of in each other's market. For example, for our open-skies type of agreement with the United States, there's no limit. There are no restrictions on the number of frequencies that Canadian carriers can use to fly into the U.S. market.

International Trade committee  We haven't done that type of analysis. I'm not aware of any.

International Trade committee  I was referring to the GMAP. As you know, the current global market action plan not only identifies 50 priority markets for Canadian businesses, but also identifies certain sectors and certain professions that we're trying to advance opportunities for. So for air transport in our department, we have different agreements that we use to leverage, and I guess we would see them as different pillars to advance our trade and investment objectives.

International Trade committee  Sorry, which ones of the 50 are we not...?

International Trade committee  The five GMAP markets that we're not negotiating with are Brunei, Burma, Madagascar, Kazakhstan, and Zambia. Again, the reason is that they're small markets, essentially, and there doesn't seem to be an interest to exploit the opportunities in those markets. In terms of the plan for this year, we are looking at approaching a series of countries, mostly to expand our existing agreements.

International Trade committee  Okay. I'm just going to list some of the countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Cambodia, Haiti, Cuba, Bolivia, Indonesia, Grenada, Japan, Australia, Mexico, and China. That gives you an indication of the countries that we hope to meet with this year.

International Trade committee  In my situation as the chief air negotiator, I report to the deputy minister of international trade in my department, but I also report directly to the deputy minister of Transport Canada. In that respect I have two bosses to whom I report simultaneously. Marc has his own management structure that he can speak to, but Transport Canada officials from the Transport Canada air policy secretariat and my branch work together on an ongoing basis to develop our plans and activities.

International Trade committee  No, not in our transport agreements. It depends on the agreements, but we normally would identify the national carriers in the specific air agreement that we negotiate. Marc may want to add something.