International Trade committee  Thank you. Welcome to our guests from Colombia. It's wonderful to be here. First, I would like to thank the chair and the committee members for inviting me to testify this afternoon. This is our second, third or fourth time together to talk about Colombia. This time it's actu

International Trade committee  This indeed is Colombian coffee, and certainly fair trade too. In talking about the human rights assessment in Colombia, I think it's important to step back and frame it in the larger context of human rights agreements, impact assessments, and free trade agreements, especially a

International Trade committee  I think there are two separate issues here. If you want to include it as part of the agreement, you need to extend the methodology to include some sort of survey of firms to identify decisions and a survey of investors to identify decisions. And then, as the methodology lays out,

International Trade committee  Sure. Thank you very much for the question. I think in terms of issues that Colombia has addressed.... To put this in context, in terms of responding to human rights issues—which are present in countries throughout the hemisphere, from Canada down to Argentina and Chile—Colombi

International Trade committee  Whether they're linked is questioned. It has to be reviewed in the context of the agreement, the context of relations between the countries, and the only way to firmly establish it is survey methodology, surveying firms to prove that linkages have been there. I did say there are

International Trade committee  There was a closer causal relationship between interventions and reforms undertaken by the government: the placing of more police officers, better training for police, the creation of new units by the government. The dramatic drop in deaths of people who have some union affiliati

International Trade committee  The homicide rate in Colombia was 14,700 last year, which was about 30-some per 100,000. The rate for trade unionists or people somehow affiliated with the trade union I believe was five per 100,000 or four 100,000. So it's safer. People have made this argument, not I but others,

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think I should really reconsider my stock portfolio and add some Canadian mining export companies. Mr. Chair, it's a pleasure to be on the Hill again. I will be making my statement in English, but I would be happy to answer members' questions in eithe

International Trade committee  I apologize for not having produced something, but I'm happy to provide individual briefings to members or to the caucuses outside of the setting that we're in now.

International Trade committee  Thank you for the question. I think the first thing to do is to focus on Canada's interests. That means identifying what matters most to Canada, not the regions. In this regard, the alliance is important as an opportunity for our near-term prosperity. If there are four countrie

International Trade committee  That is a real worry and I'm sorry that the folks from Foreign Affairs couldn't address the issue. They do need more resources in my opinion because the trade agenda is that important. The department to a large degree is underappreciated and I would argue to some degree underfund

International Trade committee  I won't comment on that.

International Trade committee  It's good like that.

International Trade committee  Well, let me see if I can answer a little bit of that. On issues of different regulatory regimes, we had the same issue about Mexico. It's important to look at not where countries have been but where they are and where they're going. The work these countries are doing in terms

International Trade committee  Certainly. Let me go over the testimony again. This is the second kick at the NAFTA can. Just as we benefited from being in the North American integration group that goes beyond simply having free trade agreements, we will benefit from a similar agreement with alliance countries