International Trade committee  Good morning. My name is Mark Rowlinson. I'm counsel to the United Steelworkers union and I am also on the international affairs committee of the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers. The United Steelworkers is an international trade union with roughly 250,000 members in Ca

International Trade committee  That's correct, particularly as they relate to enforcement.

International Trade committee  It's an interesting question. The AFL-CIO has been in fairly detailed discussions with the Democratic Party about what labour provisions would be acceptable to the AFL-CIO. For a variety of political reasons, the AFL-CIO was ultimately not able to endorse the U.S.-Peru agreement,

International Trade committee  Thank you for your question. If you don't mind, I will answer in English, because I am more comfortable doing so. If you look at the agreement itself, the investor about whom you speak has access to chapter 8 of the agreement. It's right here, section B, “Settlement of Disputes

International Trade committee  Obviously these are enormous trade agreements. They're long documents. They provide for different rights in different areas. I think the central difference between the two agreements, from a labour perspective, is that the labour provisions in the Peru-U.S. agreement are subject

International Trade committee  I know we're running short on time. Let me be--

International Trade committee  In respect of the enforcement of labour rights, there's no question that I believe the Canadian government has negotiated an agreement that is inferior to the one negotiated by the U.S. government.

International Trade committee  That's correct, and again, the labour movement was brought into that discussion. I think that's important to note.

International Trade committee  In fact, the whole history of hemispheric free trade reflects the fact that the U.S. legislature has been, with respect to those present, far more engaged and active on this issue than the Canadian legislature has been. Recall that the only reason we have any environmental or lab

International Trade committee  My concerns can be summarized as follows. I think the labour rights should be subjected to the same enforcement mechanism that is given to investor rights. Again, whether that's in a side agreement or not, to some extent, may be beside the point. Clearly, if you have the labour r

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. Thank you for having me. My name is Mark Rowlinson. I'm the assistant to the Canadian national director of the United Steelworkers. I'm also a practising labour lawyer, and I'm on the International Affairs Committee of

International Trade committee  Certainly. Thanks very much for the question. I think your description of the situation in the qualified industrial zones, from my knowledge, is entirely accurate. Again, I would refer you to the testimony and the report that I think was filed with you by Charles Kernaghan. I

International Trade committee  I must confess I'm not an expert on Jordanian labour law, but in Jordan, as with so many other countries, there's an enormous gap between the statutory protections and the enforcement of those protections. I think that often with respect to matters of discrimination, and particul

International Trade committee  I want to pick up on something Mr. Neil said, which is that implicit in all of the trade agreements the Canadian government has been pursuing is the notion that with increased trade and with engagement, at some point everyone, including workers in both countries, will benefit. As

International Trade committee  I'll address that initially. I have two very straightforward suggestions in terms of how the agreements are put together themselves. First, we think labour rights should not be relegated to a side agreement. The same would apply for environmental rights. The labour rights should