International Trade committee  I wanted to clarify something. When I provided our view, I mentioned we would have to do a slight formatting change. We propose that clause 12 becomes clause 12.1, with three proposed paragraphs—(a), (b) and (c)—and that the proposed amendment becomes clause 12.2. That way we make it completely clear that the additional reporting on expenses would be borne by the Government of Canada.

International Trade committee  Our only comment with the original proposed amendment was to clarify that any of the reporting on the costs incurred by the joint commission would only be relating to those costs incurred by the Government of Canada. We wanted it to be clear that we weren't putting any other obligations on other CPTPP members to also provide these costs.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  I'm not aware of any publishing of their costs and expenses.

International Trade committee  There are 11 parties, including Canada.

International Trade committee  I guess the short answer is that this amendment would effectively represent a unilateral amendment to the treaty; therefore, it would make it impossible for us to ratify the agreement if the amendment carried.

International Trade committee  Absolutely. Three countries have ratified this treaty already. Any proposed amendments in the area of ISDS, which is a provision and a part of the investment chapter, is strongly supported by several of the CPTPP countries, so this proposed amendment would effectively make the ISDS provisions of the agreement inoperable.

International Trade committee  There aren't really any structural differences between the two agreements. As I mentioned, after the United States announced its withdrawal or its intent not to ratify, Japan brought us together to discuss at the ministerial level how we could continue this process and not let all the good work go to waste.

International Trade committee  It is a hypothetical question you're posing. I have not seen any signals today under the current administration that the United States is interested in joining. Even if the United States decided under the current administration that it wanted to come back to the fold, we would expect that they would immediately want to lift the suspended provisions, and I would expect on top of that that they would make additional demands, because I don't think the current president likes the CPTPP agreement.

International Trade committee  If the committee agrees, perhaps we can come back to it once we get into the clause-by-clause part of the discussion.

International Trade committee  I'm going to call on the negotiator who is responsible for the ISDS provisions and who can provide more precision to answer your question.

International Trade committee  Our office of the chief economist did an economic study looking at what the impact on trade and investment into Canada will be as a result of the ratification implementation of this agreement. We looked at how, especially given the fact that the United States had decided not to participate in the agreement....

International Trade committee  I have not received any proposed amendments.

International Trade committee  Well, if you look at the CPTPP countries, you can see that the only country that will export automobiles to Japan under this agreement is Japan. After the 6.1% Canadian tariff is eliminated, they will have the ability to export vehicles into Canada duty free as long as they meet the 45% regional value content.

International Trade committee  I suppose so. We have a built-in clause in the CPTPP that allows us to meet every three years to review the implementation of the agreement, at which point all members are free to propose amendments to the agreement, or other changes based on their perception of how the agreement is being implemented.