International Trade committee  Yes, that's true. The majority are.

International Trade committee  When we talk about monitoring by the WTO, it's not so much a question of monitoring individual issues. It tends to monitor whether WTO members are submitting the necessary transparency with respect to everything from subsidies to export restrictions to various measures that there

International Trade committee  We have seen some important and significant differences coming out of the Biden administration so far. They've certainly indicated a very strong willingness to engage with allies and work with allies to try to find solutions, and we've already started some very good dialogues in

International Trade committee  First I would like to make it clear, because I think there's been confusion off and on, but we have not rejected the proposal for a TRIPS waiver. Obviously a significant number of WTO members support a TRIPS waiver, and the proposal was put forward by India and South Africa, as y

International Trade committee  That is certainly something we've been focused on very intently. Since having the meeting back in November, we have been working towards trying to develop a statement that could be presented to the WTO General Council. We initially presented a statement to the WTO General Counci

International Trade committee  The softwood lumber issue has been a long-standing irritant. We have a total of six legal cases that we have been pursuing on softwood lumber against the U.S. over the past number of years. We have cases under the earlier NAFTA that have not yet led to a conclusion. We have cases

International Trade committee  Along with my colleagues from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, I have had fairly extensive discussions with CAFTA on the notion of a chief implementation officer, and we had the most recent of those discussions a couple of weeks ago. The discussion was more in the nature of exch

International Trade committee  Well, it certainly makes sense to have a broader agreement rather than a more narrow agreement, but as you kind of implied, it sometimes makes sense to do what you're able to do at a given point in time. However, I would like to turn that question over to Kendal Hembroff, becaus

International Trade committee  Yes, there have been. We have not had a ministerial meeting since then, but we do have one coming up. We have had, I think, two vice-ministerial meetings, and we've had ongoing meetings in Geneva among our ambassadors. We've also had meetings between many of us at headquarters an

International Trade committee  Within that mechanism itself there's not much we can do, because at this point it's something where we're trying to build support for an initiative. There are no binding commitments as of yet; these are more ideas that we're putting forward. The EU—certainly from what we've been

International Trade committee  With respect to the trade and health initiative, we don't think it would necessarily have prevented that entirely. We've been saying that if there are going to be any trade restrictions imposed, they have to be very temporary and in place for a short period of time. They have to

International Trade committee  Yes, it certainly is something we have been working on. In fact, when we initially established the Ottawa Group, that was one of the three main elements we were looking to try to improve on. Transparency and notifications—those kinds of issues were front and centre. That remains

International Trade committee  We had specific discussions around that issue. As I think you know, in November we were discussing issues related to trade and health. This is a bit more of a long-term effort to try to make sure we have the ability to move WHO members in such a direction as to get rid of issues

International Trade committee  There was broad support for that among the Ottawa Group, particularly at that point in time. As I mentioned, we have had unanimous support on the trade and health initiative, and it has been a main focus of what we've been trying to achieve moving forward. However, as I mentioned

International Trade committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. I am pleased to be here today to provide an overview of the government’s engagement on WTO reform, including Canada’s leadership of the Ottawa Group. In particular, I’d like to highlight some significant developments that have co