International Trade committee  A significant number of them do, but I don't have the exact figure. Many of our members are taking advantage of the oil and gas industry's growth across Canada, be it in the maritime provinces or in the west. Our industrial base is increasingly leaning toward repositioning itself, not only by diversifying its export markets, but also by diversifying its sales in various sectors.

International Trade committee  Yes. That's a fair comment.

International Trade committee  No, I think your perception is right. I don't know if “tentative” is the right word. I think we're just a little bit tentative; “cautious” would be a good way to characterize it. As I said, they are a large, mature, industrial market. They have companies that are leading companies in different sectors around the world.

International Trade committee  Companies are investing in growing business in other markets. The issue with Japan is that those trade barriers are tough to deal with. Can Japan effectively deal with them through a trade negotiation? I don't know. I haven't seen them do it before. I understand they are pursuing a trade agenda that includes Canada and other countries.

International Trade committee  Exactly.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Easter. That's a very good question. I think one thing that has been keeping our economy out of recession and actually probably positioning Canada as one of the leading economies in the developed world is our natural resources sector. I know there has been some talk about that driving up the value of the dollar and affecting manufacturers in a negative way.

International Trade committee  Just quickly, I agree with you; I think we need to keep all of our options open. In fact, negotiating bilaterally with Japan actually gives us more leverage as we're seeking to enter TPP. I guess my point was just that if we had a preference between either, we'd rather see negotiations multilaterally through TPP.

International Trade committee  Exactly, yes.

International Trade committee  Yes. We cannot take those for granted. In the context of an FTA negotiation, the traditional FTA model is that you start by at least getting rid of most tariffs and having as few exclusions as possible. We kind of take that for granted. In the new generation or the next generation of trade agreements, certainly what we're trying to do with Europe, for example, is that we're looking to move beyond just tariff elimination.

International Trade committee  Well, you want to do an FTA with a country where there are trade barriers, right? I mean, the whole idea of negotiating a free trade agreement is to reduce trade barriers and allow companies to do business more easily. If we try to do FTAs with countries where there are no barriers, it would make a good announcement, but it doesn't necessarily do much for business.

International Trade committee  That's a good question. I mean, it depends on what the outcome of the agreement is. I'm sure you'll hear from sectors such as the auto sector. Both the Canadian and U.S. auto sectors have been raising market access issues with Japan for a very long time. So would this be a sector that...?

International Trade committee  Thank you. That's a very good question. I was hoping you would ask it, because I kind of excluded that from my opening remarks. As for the barriers to trade, I think Richard, Peter, and Janice alluded to some of them in their own sectors. For manufactured goods, I think what we often hear from our members is that the barriers are related to standards and certification, both in their complexity and in the lack of transparency in terms of changing regulations and changing standards, and also in regard to the costs and the delays associated with getting products certified for sale into the Japanese market.

International Trade committee  I don't know if I'm an expert, but I've had the pleasure of coming here a few times. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for inviting me to appear before the committee again on behalf of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. We are happy to take part in these important consultations on an economic partnership agreement with Japan.

International Trade committee  That is a very good question. Yes, the manufacturing sector has been hit by major job losses these last years because of the rise of the dollar. We must compete with a volatile dollar that has experienced much appreciation. There is ever fiercer competition, not only within our main market, that of the United States, but also throughout the world.

International Trade committee  That is a very good question. NAFTA is probably one of the main, if not the main, reason why the manufacturing sector experienced phenomenal growth during the 1990s. I believe that this created a lot of jobs in Canada. Clearly, the dollar’s appreciation forced businesses to somewhat revise their strategy.