International Trade committee  No, I do not.

International Trade committee  We didn't discuss energy specifically in the negotiation. However, those provisions are covered in both the market access chapter and the services chapter. Those provisions to promote energy security or to ensure market access for any energy services or products are covered by the agreement.

International Trade committee  There's nothing preventing the export of natural gas from Canada to Ukraine or from Ukraine to Canada. We simply don't have the infrastructure in place to facilitate those exports, but there's nothing in the agreement that prevents those exports from taking place.

International Trade committee  The previous foreign investment promotion and protection agreement, FIPA, with Ukraine was one of our older-generation agreements, so almost 30 years later, we've applied our new FIPA model, which came into effect a few years ago. In this new FIPA model, it includes new drafting to ensure that parties are able to maintain the right to regulate and provide the policy flexibility in areas such as environment, culture, indigenous, gender and cultural diversities.

International Trade committee  Mr. Chair, actually, in the case of the CPTPP, the ISDS provisions were already found in the original TPP agreement that we ratified after the United States left the agreement. Canada chose not to sign additional side letters with the U.K. or any other party to the original agreement that exempted ISDS provisions.

International Trade committee  Thank you for the question. Maybe I'll start by reiterating the point that, under the current CUFTA agreement that came into force in 2017, neither party has brought an ISDS case forward. We don't anticipate a flurry of ISDS challenges by investors against the government as a result of a modernized agreement.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much for your question. Just to clarify, as Minister Ng mentioned earlier this morning, when we look at our obligations on investor-state dispute settlement, when we sat down with Ukraine to expand and modernize the agreement, it was Ukraine that asked us to include provisions on ISDS.

International Trade committee  In addition to the committees that already exist, there's a new labour committee. There's a new committee on financial services, and there are obviously the new chapters on trade and gender, trade and SMEs, and trade with indigenous peoples. We will establish committees to monitor the implementation of those provisions as well.

International Trade committee  No, they will not. This is a federal treaty. This is a treaty signed by Canada, but on the obligations in the treaty itself, although Canada is responsible for those, some of those obligations fall within provincial-territorial jurisdiction. We work closely with the provinces to ensure consistent application of the obligations in the free trade agreement.

International Trade committee  Absolutely, and thank you very much for the question. One of the provisions of the labour chapter is that, first of all, it uses the text from Canada's gold standard labour chapter found in both the CUSMA and the CPTPP. That labour chapter and the provisions therein are fully subject to dispute settlement procedures.

International Trade committee  Yes. What it does in this chapter, building on some of our previous agreements, is that it includes core obligations such as market access, national treatment and most favoured nation treatment to Canadian financial service providers, along with our Ukrainian counterparts. It also provides new commitments on electronic payments and the processing of applications, but also includes, as we would typically seek in a free trade agreement, a robust prudential exception that allows our financial service regulators to take measures to maintain the integrity and stability of the financial system, and when—

International Trade committee  The text is finalized. The text has been signed by our leaders. It would be too late to amend the agreement, but down the road, further to implementation, we could look at improving any aspect of the agreement.

International Trade committee  As I mentioned earlier, the provisions of a trade agreement are constantly being updated. In terms of those issues, nuclear co-operation or LNG co-operation, we can discuss those issues within the committee—the environment chapter. There aren't specific provisions in the agreement to allow the development or promote the development of Ukraine's LNG sector.

International Trade committee  The difference for the client.... First of all, on the carbon tax point, this is a co-operation-based discussion in the agreement. There aren't binding provisions on carbon taxes or climate change. What we've included in this trade agreement is an ability for the parties to discuss, to ensure that any trade initiatives don't hinder parties' abilities to promote climate change initiatives, and that would include the imposition of a carbon tax.

International Trade committee  Nothing would stop us, although typically in a trade agreement, you deal with the rules of trade and provisions to support derogation from those rules. In terms of promoting LNG co-operation, it typically wouldn't be something found in a trade agreement, but it's not to say we couldn't discuss it within the environment committee of this agreement to look for further co-operation.