International Trade committee  I might turn to my colleague who worked on the ISDS provisions to follow up on that.

International Trade committee  I think I might turn to my colleague at Agriculture Canada to respond.

International Trade committee  We have not heard directly from any Canadian companies about this as of yet, but, yes, there is no question that the supply chains into Europe or for goods coming out of Europe or coming out of the U.K. have been directly impacted by Brexit and by all of the challenges that the U.K. leaving the single market and the customs union have caused.

International Trade committee  Again, it's a month in. I haven't heard directly about any impacts on investments, either here in Canada or in the U.K., but it's something that we'll follow closely and will continue to follow closely, and maybe at some point in the future we could be able to report on that.

International Trade committee  Yes, I think we certainly could table that. One thing I would just caution you on in terms of comparing the two, especially around automotive goods, but not necessarily exclusive to automotive goods, is that in order to qualify for a zero duty or preferential duty rate you would have to meet the rules of origin for those products.

International Trade committee  We have heard on a number of occasions, informally, both at my level and at the level of my colleagues who deal exclusively with the CPTPP, about the U.K.'s interest in joining. My understanding is that Secretary of Trade Truss has mentioned it and noted it a few times as well to Minister Ng.

International Trade committee  Yes, we had heard that could be a concern for Canadian exporters. The logistics route for many Canadian shipments involved them first landing somewhere in the United Kingdom and then being broken up and transshipped on throughout the European Union. Similarly, a number of Canadians would ship to Rotterdam and then break up the load and send it on to the U.K., depending on the product and where it would ship from.

International Trade committee  I think one of the key reasons why these provisions are in the agreement is that this was a replication exercise, so we were looking to replicate what we had in CETA. There were a number of discussions that we had with our counterparts from the U.K. about changes to the agreement.

International Trade committee  Once we have the TCA in place, it is, as I have noted a couple of times, a replication of the CETA, so the CETA provisions would apply. There's nothing in the TCA that...though we continue to examine both the CETA and the WTO to review what recourse we might have for the export restrictions, but there does not appear to be any...we have not yet seen anything in either of those agreements that would prevent what has taken place, no.

International Trade committee  I think the experiences of this week, as you already noted, have caused a lot of people to turn their minds to different aspects of the procurement process. There has, to date, been no further analysis in terms of what the IP aspects of that are. It doesn't mean that there won't be in the future, but I'm not aware of any that has happened this week as of yet.

International Trade committee  I think that the IP chapter, both in CETA and here in the U.K., includes the obligations of protection and enforcement. How far we want to go in the future is open for discussion. As we look forward to the consultations for the Canada-U.K. bilateral negotiation, I think that will provide stakeholders and others with all kinds of opportunity for their views.

International Trade committee  Yes, the United Kingdom had indicated that to us, mostly informally, but they had made a number of pronouncements that they would seek to join the CPTPP, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. This week, they made an official announcement, I believe on Monday, that they would pursuing the application process for that agreement by sending a letter to each and every CPTPP member.

International Trade committee  When the U.K. officially goes through its application process, it will be required to meet the high standards the CPTPP members have already agreed to. There will be a bilateral market access negotiation. In parallel, as mentioned in my previous answer, we would continue bilateral negotiations with the U.K. on a parallel track.

International Trade committee  I think it speaks really to the success we've had with our increased exports to the European Union under CETA and that we wish to continue with for the U.K. The “cliff edge” that I referenced was very much around at the end of three years making sure that we have the agreement in place and that we're able to take advantage of it to the fullest extent possible.

International Trade committee  The ratification process will follow its domestic course, both here in Canada and in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom has finalized its ratification process this week. Once Canada has done that, there will be an exchange of letters between both governments to indicate that all of the domestic processes have taken place and that we are ready to agree on an entry into force date.