International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Bonjour, and thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. I am Jon Allen, the assistant deputy minister for the Americas at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, responsible for North and South America. With me today from the d

International Trade committee  Well, it's very difficult to predict. You know the process. A bill was introduced into the Senate. Before anything can happen a bill has to be introduced into the House. The Republicans control the House. They could amend the current legislation, or they could kill the current le

International Trade committee  Let me just say that in respect of the negotiations that are ongoing now in respect of the new agreement, which was a question, there have been two very substantive meetings. A third meeting is planned. Both sides are very serious about this. I think we are indeed making some p

International Trade committee  Not that I'm aware of, Mr. Vice-Chair.

International Trade committee  We did. Let me just say that we do not receive previews of legislation put forward by the United States. Indeed there was some surprise, both at the U.S. embassy here and within the offices of a number of our contacts, because that legislation is not previewed to bureaucrats in

International Trade committee  Well, I can tell you, Mr. Vice-Chair, that what we have done is spent a considerable amount of money through our consulates and our embassy in the United States to identify markets in the U.S. where our companies will be able to procure. We have been working with Canadian busines

International Trade committee  That is correct.

International Trade committee  Well, again, as we've tried to explain, trying to predict that is very difficult, given the $105 billion we're talking about and then parsing that down to how much money we're actually talking about in terms of contracts. You're talking about contracts that would have a Canadian

International Trade committee  I'll let my colleagues continue, but I would simply say that the whole point of the WTO is to keep trade as open and free as possible. They have their own procurement agreement, obviously, and believe strongly in that. I guess the one thing we have to note, though, is that the U.

International Trade committee  We're working with the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters; with the CCCE, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives; and with the majority of those individuals, companies, and associations that are being affected or potentially could be affected if this legislation were to go th

International Trade committee  Yes, to some extent we are going down the same path. It's quite a different context. One does not have to make excuses for the Americans, but the President is facing an incredibly high unemployment rate. He's facing no growth. He's facing an election, and rather than thinking of

International Trade committee  First of all, I think we should note and just remind ourselves that we have made progress. You're talking about a specific case, which is very relevant and important: somebody who was dealing with New York City, which is local.

International Trade committee  We've dealt with federal and state, so we've made some progress, which does send a bit of a signal the other way. Secondly, I think in respect of this legislation--and you acknowledged it--we do have to remember, frankly, that the chances of it going through as is are not partic

International Trade committee  You were actually pretty comprehensive in your description of what is happening. We have two focuses. We have the embassy in Washington, which is coordinating with all of our missions—22 missions in the U.S.—to ensure that we are getting to members of Congress in their districts

International Trade committee  It's Ambassador Doer in Washington. It's our consuls-general in our various missions right around the United States. Here in Ottawa at the officials level, it would be Louis Lévesque, the Deputy Minister of International Trade, and the assistant deputy minister for trade policy,