International Trade committee  That's exactly the kind of thing we're aiming at, yes.

International Trade committee  That really depends on the sector. Those will be more or less sector-based discussions in many cases. When it comes to something like agriculture, we're moving towards equivalence in treatment on beef and pork and other products. We've recently reached agreement on organic standards as well.

International Trade committee  Yes.

International Trade committee  Right. We have done some of that. Even prior to CETA, we had some protections for certain Canadian spirits and other similar products. When we went through the negotiations, we found there wasn't a lot of strong interest on the part of Canadian producers to get this kind of protection.

International Trade committee  In terms of existing products, that was kind of a negotiation that depended on the specific product. We grandfathered a number of products that are produced in Canada and are also imported widely. We wanted to make sure those were either excluded or grandfathered in order to avoid disrupting current trade.

International Trade committee  I think the atmosphere has shifted quite a bit since we completed the legal review and we agreed on the investment provisions as well. That was really where the EU concerns were focused. I think if you talk to most Europeans, you will find there's a lot of strong support for CETA as an ambitious agreement that meets a lot of objectives on both sides.

International Trade committee  As you say, services are taking up an increasingly large portion of economies in most developed countries. Your number of I think 75% is about where the EU is at overall, and Canada is not far behind in terms of the proportion that services take up of the current economy. Now, in terms of our interest in the EU, the EU has a services market of some $12 trillion.

International Trade committee  They do not. They're negotiating an agreement with Europe, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, but they're not all that advanced. They're still in active negotiations.

International Trade committee  Yes. Over the past month or month and a half, we've negotiated some precision in the investment provisions, particularly with respect to some of the actual substantive protections. The right to regulate has been reinforced, and that type of thing. We've also modified the dispute resolution process to introduce some further elements to make the process more independent and transparent.

International Trade committee  No. When we started discussing the changes to the investment chapter, we found that we were pursuing similar goals. Some of the provisions that are now included reflect positions that we held earlier in the negotiations.

International Trade committee  This was something we developed in conjunction with the EU. It certainly represents some new ground that has been broken, particularly with issues such as an appellate mechanism. There's never been an appellate mechanism in an investment dispute resolution process. This is the first time we've tried it.

International Trade committee  That was our main thrust in those discussions, to ensure that science-based decisions will be made when it comes to regulatory standards. The EU has agreed to that. With respect to regulatory co-operation, what we've really been focusing on is trying to make sure there's a lot of dialogue happening between Canadian regulators and EU regulators as new regulations are developed.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. My name is Steve Verheul. I'm Canada's chief trade negotiator for the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA. I'm pleased to be here today to participate in this technical briefing on CETA. I'll begin with a brief overview of the EU market and then turn to what we see as the opportunities that CETA will create, both for Canada's business community and by extension for the Canadian economy.

International Trade committee  It's true we are working with the Europeans at this point to revise some of the investment provisions. There are really two parts to this. The first part is that we're clarifying some of the provisions in the agreement with respect to the obligations to ensure that the government's right to regulate is not interfered with by investor claims that could affect that ability to regulate.

International Trade committee  There are some existing exemptions now when it comes to areas like expropriation in particular, where we've exempted issues related to the environment and social services and various other issues of that nature. I don't think we have mentioned water specifically, but we have various protections for water throughout the agreement, which would also have a bearing on that.